it bringeth forth Sin now Sin must be taken at the first conception as soon as the temptation offers it self and begins to allure and tickle by something that it presents so that the Heart inclines to a closure with it now fall on presently and parlie no longer This brat of Babylon must be dasht in pieces in its very infancy 't is good to kill the Cockatrice in the very egg to quench the fire at the first smotherings of it within or else it will quickly flame forth in the life even to the making the conversation carnal Be very watchful over the initial suggestions of the Flesh and fall upon the timely exercise of mortification upon the first motions of sin say Sathan Flesh * Mat. 16.23 get thee behind me thou art an offence to me But I must not further expatiate upon these things So much for the disuasive part of this Vse against walking after the flesh 2 Branch of the Vse to exhort to Walking after the Spirit I go on to the persuasive part wherein I would most earnestly exhort you to walk after the Spirit I will be but short upon this because that which I have already spoken hath a great tendency to the promoting of it for the truth is whilst I have been disuading you from walking after the Flesh I have in effect been persuading you to walk after the Spirit in beating you off from that I have been drawing you on to this You have heard what it is so to walk what now remains but that you would all endeavour to put it in practise and O that this might be your way and course Let others live as they please let it be your fixed resolution that you will live the holy spiritual heavenly life True there are but few who do thus walk the World is but a great Exchange wherein the Spirits Walk is very thin whilst the Fleshes Walk is full and crowded but 't is better to be with the Few in the way of the Spirit than with the Many in the way of the Flesh And I desire you to lay it to heart have not you your selves too long walked after the flesh is it not high time for you to think of another Course 1 Pet. 4.3 The time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles when we walked in Lasciviousness Lusts Excess of Wine c. When will ye walk in newness of life as the expression is Rom. 6.4 when shall the renewing and the renewed Spirit command govern act guide you in your whole conversation when will you so walk that you your selves and others too may know by the spiritualness of your deportment that you are indeed in Christ Jesus * The exhortation to walking after the Spirit pressed by some Motives Here consider in opposition to what was said of the former walking but three things 1. This is excellent Walking The spiritual life is the excellent life * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arist Eth. lib. 10. cap. 7. this speaks somewhat more than what is of man there is something divine and supernatural in it To be acted by to live under the conduct and guidance of the blessed Spirit to have affections propensions ends all holy this is truely great This is the Life which is most agreeable to the humane Nature not onely as consider'd in its primitive unstained glory and excellency but as 't is now under its sad ruins and decays O how unbecoming how ill doth a vitious Conversation comport even with that Reason natural Light and those broken excellencies which are yet left in Man Man is not so low but that by complying with sensual Lusts he yet acts below himself nay so far as he puts on the Sinner he puts off the Man where he un-Saints himself he un-Mans himself Sensuality and wickedness carry in them a contradiction to his very Being nothing so well suits with that as a pious religious heavenly course Further the fleshly life is a base sordid life but the spiritual life is a raised noble life So much as the Spirit is above the Flesh the Soul above the Body so much is the * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arist ibid. p. 138. spiritual life above the sensual or carnal life The life which I am urging upon you is the very life of God himself for the Apostle speaks Eph. 4.18 of some mens being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them by which life of God he means in part the holiness of God or that holy life which God lives the holy liver then he not being alienated from Gods holiness lives the life of God he acts in * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plato in Thaeaet conformity though under a vast disproportion to the great God must there not then needs be unspeakable glory and excellency in Spiritual Walking The more one lives the fleshly life the more he resembles the Beast the more one lives the spiritual life the more he resembles God the Creature is not so much debased and depressed by the One but he-is as much advanc'd and dignified by the Other Saints may be censured and misjudged by the world but in truth they come the nearest and are most like to God that they might be judged according to men in the Flesh but live according to God in the Spirit 1 Pet. 4.6 I do but allude to these words for I know in their first and proper sense they point to another thing than that which I cite them for Gods people are judged as if they lived according to men walking in or after the Flesh as others do but 't is not so they walk in or after the Spirit and so live according to God what a great thing is this for poor creatures to live according to God! who would not so live And this too is the Life of the blessed ones in Heaven take the glorified Saints how do they walk not after the Flesh I assure you for they have no such Flesh to walk after they are wholly freed from the sinning and sinful Nature are perfectly renewed and sanctified and accordingly they act All in them or from them is divine and spiritual there 's nothing that they do but what flows from a gracious principle all their thoughts and affections are swallowed up in God their love joy delight are unmixtly spiritual the pleasures of the Flesh are nothing to them they have not the least inclination to the least evil the great thing they mind and rejoyce in is the Glory of God O what an holy spiritual life do the Saints live in heaven Must not the same life then needs be excellent in the Saints here so far forth as they can reach it in their imperfect state Surely none can undervalue or think low of it but onely they who are altogether ignorant of and strangers to it A Child of God would not for a thousand worlds live any other
crassissimis vitiis c. P. Mart. Addo quòd fortasse Paulus non tam spectasse videtur vim Baptismi quâ omnis macula penitus abstergitur sed ad mores ac vitam eorum qui Christi gratia perceptâ omnes vitae suae rationes ad Christi legem exigunt atque it a pravae cupiditati nonobsequuntur Justinian we talk of Faith make our boast of the Gospel glory in our Baptism lay a great stress upon our Church priviledges when yet notwithstanding all this we are meer Flesh-pleasers our Conversations are carnal and fleshly doth not this proclaim us to be yet out of Christ VSE 2. Of Examination about our walking whither it be after the flesh or after the spirit Secondly Let me desire you to examine what your walking is whether it be after the flesh or after the spirit Is spiritual walking the property of all who are in Christ must this evidence your union with him how then doth it concern you all to judge aright about it Here are two Sorts of Walkers and every man in the world comes under the One or the Other for these two divide the world betwixt them Now where are you what is your course which of these walkings do you come under what do you follow Flesh or Spirit I told you at the first this is a thing which may be known the Apostle doth not lay the Evidence upon something that is abstruse and hard to be understood but upon that which is easie to be found out surely with a little diligence every person may know what his walking is I intreat you therefore to urge this home upon your selves O let every one say how do I walk what a kind of life do I live holy or sinful spiritual or carnal Brethren your freedom from Condemnation depends upon your Vnion with Christ will you not find out that then your Union must be known by the holiness of your walking and will you not understand your selves about this also O what a blessed thing is it when a man is clear in this so that he can frame a Syllogism upon it thus He that walks not after the flesh but after the spirit he is in Christ But I through grace am one who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit therefore I am in Christ This is a good bottom to build assurance upon these premises will bear the weight of such a conclusion be sure you take up with nothing short of this 'T is onely the spiritual life which must assure of the Mystical Vnion 1 Joh. 1.6 If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness we lie and do not the truth 1 Joh. 2.4 5 6. He that saith I know him and keepeth not his commandments is a liar and the truth is not in him But whoso keepeth his word in him verily is the love of God perfected hereby know we that we are in him He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also to walk even as he walked Faith indeed is the bond of the union but holines of heart and life is the mark or evidence of it And 't is the walking which makes the Christian 't is not external profession the being of such or such a party some good religious talking but 't is the course of life which is the distinguishing character betwixt person and person O that God would direct every one of you to pass righteous judgment upon himself concerning this I need not add any thing to what hath been laid down in order to the helping of you in this Tryal The walking after the Flesh and after the Spirit have been opened and by the particulars which make up each of them you may be able to judge of your selves 'Pray go over them in your own thoughts again and again and say is the Flesh or the Spirit our principle our guide what are our affections do we savour the things of the Flesh or of the Spirit what are our secret and strongest propensions are our Ends fleshly or spiritual I say go over these things again and again and there 's no question of it but that serious and frequent examination in a little time will fully clear up the thing to you Atwofold walking after the Flesh Onely to prevent mistakes let me tell you there is a twofold walking after the Flesh One more gross and manifest the Other more close and more indiscernable The first is when the Flesh breaks forth and openly vents it self in external and bodily lusts such as adultery uncleanness drunkenness gluttony c. this is * 2 Cor. 7.1 the filthiness of the flesh The Second is when the Flesh more secretly vents it self in internal heart-lusts such as are kept in and lie smothering in the Soul as pride self-love envy coveteousness c. this is the filthiness of the Spirit the Apostle gives a Catalogue of the actings of the Flesh in both of these respects Gal. 5.19 20 c. Now here 's the mistake of men they confine walking after the flesh to the first of these the latter being little regarded by them so that if they do not live in whoredome gross intemperance open profaneness bruitish sensuality they think all is well whereas they may be free from these gross practises and yet be walkers after the flesh The corrupt Nature hath other out-lets besides these and there may be Sins ulcers within when they do not externally show themselves O be not deceived you are not possibly so and so vitious in the outward conversation but if there be within in the Heart malice hatred envy uncharitableness self exalting inordinate affections to the world coveteousness these are enough to bring you within the compass of walking after the flesh * Invidentia vitium Diabolicum quo solus Diabolus reus est c. Non enim dicitur Diabolo ut damnetur adulterium commisisti furtum fecisti c. sed homini stanti lapsus invidisti Aug. de Disc Chri. cap. 1. Devils you 'l grant are bad enough 't is because of their envy pride c. for the grosser sins of the Flesh they are not liable to them * De Civitate Dei l. 14. c. 2. Austine proves that the Stoicks that strict Sect of Philosophers were as guilty of this upon their inward unmortified corruptions as the Epicureans themselves a more debauched and sensual sort of men if they be not wrong'd for as to Epicurus himself * Against whō see Dr. Meric Casaubon of Incredulity par 1. p. 202. c. Laertius Gassendus c. give a quite other character of him Do I see one living a bruitish life wallowing in his filthy lusts laying the reynes upon the neck of his corruptions he 's drunk defiles his body lives in open wickedness c. I 'm sure this man walks after the flesh these are the works of the flesh which are manifest Gal. 5.19 every eye sees and every tongue cries shame
Silas Acts 16.23 they were thrown into prison the Jaylor charged to keep them safely he throws them into the inner prison made their feet fast in the stocks yet for all this they were delivered how Suddenly there was a great earthquake so that the foundations of the prison were shaken and immediately all the doors were opened and every ones bonds were loosed what could have brought these persons under these circumstances out of prison but the miraculous interposures of the mighty power of God and that did it effectually Thus 't is with men in their Natural State Sin and Satan have them fast bound secur'd in chains and fetters they cannot stir hand or foot to help themselves are fully under the power of their enemies how are these now released why God comes and the Spirit comes by renewing grace and therein he opens the doors of their hearts though shut up very fast knocks off their fetters conquers the Guard that is set upon them breaks all the power and force of Sin and so rescues them from that thraldom and bondage which they were under ô the power of renewing grace well might Paul say Eph. 3 20. according to the power that worketh in us The truth is in the freeing of a Soul from the Law of Sin no less power is put forth than that very power of God put forth in the raising up of the Lord Jesus from the dead so the Apostle makes the parallel Eph. 1.19 20. and that was much above that power which was exerted in the rescuing of the forementioned persons out of their confinement It had been morally impossible that ever the Children of Israel should have been freed from the power of Pharaoh and that woful bondage they were under if God himself had not made bare his arm and brought them out with a strong and mighty hand as 't is Deut. 6.21 Psal 136.12 but 't is a much harder thing to free the Sinner from his spiritual bondage he being under a sadder captivity and held therein by a far greater strength than what Pharaoh had ô surely no deliverance could be expected from Sins dominion unless infinite power was engag'd in the bringing of it about therefore how necessary as well as efficacious is renewing Grace but more of this when I come to the third Observation One Use I have finished several Others should have been made of the Point in hand as to shew you yet further how you may find out your particular Cases whether you be under the Law of Sin or not how you may be freed from this Law if as yet you be not so why you should labour after this freedom c. But these things will as well fall in under the next Observation and therefore I will there insist upon them ROM 8.2 For the Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the Law of sin and death CHAP. VI. Of Regenerate Persons being made free from the Law of Sin The Second Observation spoken to viz. That persons truly regenerate are made free from the Law of Sin This is 1. cleared and stated where 't is shown that the freedom is not to be carried further than the Law of Sin How Sin is in the best yea and hath a great power in them and yet they are not under the Law of Sin when persons may be said to be so or what that is which constitutes the Law of Sin That not to be found in those who belong to God The Observation 2. confirmed by Scriptures and Reasons 'T is 3. applied First by way of Examination Mistakes about things which look like freedom from the Law of Sin and yet are not so Five Particulars instanc'd in Secondly all are exhorted to make out after this freedom One Direction in order to it Thirdly suth as are made free c. are exhorted 1. To be humble 2. To stand fast in their Liberty and also to walk suitably thereunto 3. To bless God Fourthly Gracious persons are comforted from hence THe Sum of these Words after the giving their proper sense and meaning hath been drawn into three Observations The 2. Observ spoken to the First of which hath been spoken to the Second now follows and 't is this That persons truly regenerate are made free from the Law of Sin this is the priviledge of all such and that which always accompanies the State of Grace or Regeneration viz. freedom from the Law of Sin Paul being such a person here saith he was made free from the Law of Sin For the better opening and stating of this Truth the first thing to be done The opening and stating of it I must necessarily inmind you of some things which in the explication of the Words and elsewhere too I have had occasion to insist upon As 1. Though the Apostle here speaks in his own person the Law of the Spirit of Life hath made me free c. yet the thing spoken of is not to be limited to him individually considered but to be extended to all who are regenerated and sanctified his knowledge of it might be somewhat special but the thing it self is common and general in all Saints 2. That the freedom mentioned in the Text refers to the being made free from the commanding reigning power of Sin rather than to the being made free from the condemning power of Sin 3. The Apostle speaks of it as an act that is past hath made me free c. therefore that freedom from Sin which the Saints shall have hereafter in their glorified estate is not here primarily intended but rather that which they have already upon their sanctification 4. This especially must be observed which I must more enlarge upon that the thing which the Saints are freed from is but the Law of Sin So the Apostle here states it Saints freed from Sin only in the Notion of its being a Law and therefore the Words are to be carried no further than to deliverance from that in Sin which doth properly denominate it to be a Law or which doth belong to it in the notion and appellation of a Law so far the Saints in this Life are made free from it but no farther For the preventing of mistakes and the due bounding of the Point two things must be laid down and made good As 1. That this freedom is not to be taken simply and absolutely for perfect deliverance from the very being and inhesion of Sin but only for deliverance from Sin in the notion of a Law The highest Saints God knows and they themselves know too well in their present state are far from being wholly compleatly perfectly made free from Sin in this respect yet the very lowest Saints are truly and really made free from the Law of Sin There 's a great difference 'twixt the inbeing and the Law of sin 'twixt the residence and the reign of sin betwixt Sins mansion and Sins dominion Sin will have a being in Gods people
the world hath he appeared c. nor only as manifested 1 Joh. 1.2 1 Joh. 3.5 8. 1 Tim. 3.16 nor only as taking Flesh which expression to some might be more doubtful and general as Heb. 2.14 16. but to put this out of all question it says he was made flesh Joh. 1.14 which must be more than a bare appearance or manifestation in imaginary and phantastick Flesh 'T was enough for * Nullus unquam Angelus ideo descendit ut crucisigeretur c. Si nunquam ejusmodi fuit causa Angelorum corporandorum habes causam cur non acceperint carnem Non venerant mori ideo nec nasci At vero Christus mori missus nasci quoque necessario habuit ut mori posset Tertull. de Carne Christi p. 363. Angels when God had only some particular and ordinary message to send them upon to assume an external shape and then lay it down again but when Christ is to be born to converse in the world a considerable time to die to make satisfaction in that Nature in which the offence had been committed here must be more than a Spectrum an apparition here must be real Flesh And indeed the former Old-Testament apparitions were but as so many †Vide Irenaum advers Haeres lib. 4. c. 37. praeludium's of Christ's real incarnation in all these he did but praeludere humanitati suae as Tertullian phraseth it 5. Therefore as to the letter of the Words when 't is said Christ was sent in the likeness of sinful Flesh this likeness is to be link'd not with Flesh but with sinful Flesh He had true real very Flesh but he had only in appearance and likeness sinful Flesh he had not a putative imaginary body but as to sin though there was something like to that in his outward state and condition yet 't was but like to it there was no such thing in truth and reality inhering in that Nature which he assumed This is that plain genuine interpretation of the Words against the old Heretical pervertings of them which the * Non in similitudine Carnis quasi Caro non esset Caro sed in similitudine Carnis quia Caro erat sed peccati Caro non erat Aug. Vide Serm. 3. 6. de verbis Apostoli In similitudine Carnis peccati fuisse Christum ait non quod similitudinem Carnis accepit quasi imaginem Corporis non veritatem sed similitudinem Carnis peccatricis vult intelligi quod ipsa non peccatrix Caro Christi ejus suit par cujus erat peccatum genere non vitio Adae c. Tertull. de Carne Christi p. 372. Similitudo ad peccati titulum pertinet non ad substantiae mendacium c. Idem adv Marci lib. 5. cap. 14. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Basil Ep. 65. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Chrysost in loc 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Theodoret. Misit Deus c. ut in verâ carnis susceptione agnosceretur veritas non fuisse peccati quantum ad corpus veritas intelligeretur quantum ad peccatum similitudo peccati Cassian de Incarn Dom. lib. 4. Orthodox Antient and Modern put upon them the truth of which I shall endeavour to make out in what will follow at present I need say no more about it Two Propositions raised from the Words These things being thus premised the whole matter will fall into these two Propositions 1. That Christ was sent in Flesh 2. That he was sent in the likeness yet but in the likeness of sinful Flesh Two very weighty and important Truths therefore I hope the opening and confirming of them will not be judged tedious or unnecessary Of the First Proposition wherein the verity of Christ's Flesh is proved I begin with the First where I shall consider the Flesh in which Christ was sent 1. in its more strict 2. in its more large notion More strictly as it relates to the verity of Christ's incarnation and the reality of his body more largely as it relates to the verity of his whole manhood which as hath been already said is made up and constituted of something more than Flesh But before I enter upon either of these Heads I cannot but bewail and O that I could do it with the most inward and most intense sadness of Spirit that unworthy wretched usage which our blessed Lord JESUS hath all along met withal ever since he was reveal'd to the world He hath but two Natures and how hath he been impugned opposed struck at in both first Some attempted to undermine his Godhead then Others succeeded who attempted to undermine his Manhood 'T is very sad to consider that he who is both God and Man if several men might have had their Will should have been long before this neither God nor Man but a very nothing Ebion first comes upon the Stage and he denies him to be God then come Marcion Manes c. and they deny him to be Man the Arrian ungods him and the Manichee unmans him what will they leave us of him who is our All How was the Primitive Church fain to dispute argue contend to their utmost and all little enough for the defence of these Natures of Christ and God be blessed for their excellent zeal in such fundamental Articles of the Christian Faith 't is pity the Churches zeal should ever run in any other Channel But Christ must be opposed some way or other for he is set for a sign which shall be spoken against Luk. 2.34 the present Contests of the world are now against him chiefly with respect to his Offices but the past Contests were against him chiefly with respect to his Natures I have according to my poor ability vindicated his Natural and eternal Sonship and consequently his Godhead I am now to vindicate the truth of his Incarnation and Manhood This the forementioned Hereticks peremptorily deny'd as appears by the * Athanas tom 1. de Incarn Christi Tertull. de Praescrip advers Haeret. c. 46. Haer. 3. de Carne Christi advers Marcion against whom he writes five Books Epiphan tom 2. lib. 1. Haer. 24. 80. tom 3. Haer. 42. August tom 4. p. 925. c. Cyrill Alexandr tom 5. p. 678. c. Antients who wrote against them they asserted that Christ had no †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ignat. hence they were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Valentinus carnem Christi putativam introduxit Tertull. de came Christi They say Christ did but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Theophylact expresses it true Flesh 't was only the likeness of Flesh which he appeared in that his body was only a Phantastick imaginary Body And this pestilent Opinion they did in part ground upon the Words which we have at present before us but as to them by the giving of their true sense this weapon has been rescued out of the Enemies hand And some
any one person who ever did so fulfil the Law I know some are mentioned but all that is said of them doth amount only to integrity of parts not to perfection of degrees to eminency in Grace and Obedience but not to Law-exactness to Evangelieal but not to legal perfection Obj. But doth God enjoyn the Creature that which is * Bellarm. de Lib. Arb. l. 5. c. 18. impossible Answ Just thus the PELAGIANS of old argued for the possibility of mens keeping the Law and †De Nat. Grat. c. 43. De Peccat Mer. Rem l. 2. c. 6 7 9. AVSTINE writing against them was fain again and again to answer this very Objection We say what is ‖ Vid. Chamier tom 3. l. 11. p. 328. Thes Sedan Vol. 1. p. 479. Pet. Martyr in loc Quanquam si quis rectē c. simply and absolutely impossible God doth not impose upon the Creature but what he himself hath made impossible voluntarily and by his own default that the great Law-giver may and doth impose This impossibility doth no way entrench upon the goodness of God because the Sinner hath contracted and wilfully brought it upon himself I hope the Creditor may demand his debt though the debtor cannot pay it if through sloth prodigality bad husbandry he hath disabled himself thereunto that 's the Sinners case with respect to perfect obedience to the Law God may demand his right though the Creature hath lost his power This Objection at the first hearing seems to have something in it and it is very plausible to put an ugliness upon the PROTESTANTS doctrine but when 't is look'd into and duly weighed there 's nothing at all of strength in it Others for brevity sake I must omit It appears then that the fulfilling of the Laws righteousness in this sense viz. of the Saints perfect and personal fulfilling thereof in themselves is not according to truth and therefore must be rejected Second Interpretation The Laws righteousness is fulfilled in Saints personally but not perfectly 2. Secondly 't is said that the Law is fulfilled in and by the Saints inherently and personally but not perfectly Thus some of our own Divines do expound the words they making them to refer to that Obedience which belongs to Sanctification and which sanctified persons in themselves come up unto who though in the high and rigid notion they do not fulfil the Law yet in a soft and mild notion * Lex data est ut gratia quaereretur gratia data est ut Lex impleretur August de Spir. Lit. l. 1. c. 19. they do There is a begun inchoate Obedience in them thereunto which is continued and carried on higher and higher till it be consummate they do not only love and like the Law and consent to it that 't is good but they obey it in part which though it be but in part yet they being sincere therein and desiring to arrive at what is perfect God accepts of them as though they did perfectly fulfil it thus Evangelically though not Legally the Laws righteousness is fulfilled in them 'T is not unusual in Scripture to set forth inchoate partial imperfect Obedience by the fulfilling of the Law Rom. 2.27 And shall not uncircumcision which is by Nature if it fulfil the Law judge thee c. Rom. 13.8 He that loveth another hath fulfilled the Law Vers 10. Love is the fulfilling of the Law Gal. 5.14 All the Law is fulfilled in one word even in this Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self Gal. 6.2 Bear ye one anothers burdens and so fulfil the Law of Christ Now in this sense the Saints in themselves in this life may be said to fulfil the Laws righteousness They who go this way differ in this * Id quod nonnulli de justificatione interpretantur c. ideoque de Sanctificatione vitae intelligitur Nam quod objici potest nos non esse perfectos ideoque c. illud non sequitur quia etsi legem non compleamus simpliciter ac simul complemus tamen secundum quid secundum omnia praecepta inchoatâ obedientiâ successive Gomar in loc Balduin Deodat c. Some interpret the words solely of inherent and personal Obedience †Pareus in Dub. p. 780. P. Martyr Others take in that also which is by imputation I cannot deny the truth of what is here said as to the thing but whether it be the proper interpretation of the Text that I question I think not My reasons why I so think are these 1. The Apostle speaking of that Obedience or fulfilling of the Law which was one of the great Ends of God in sending his Son it must be most proper here to understand that Obedience and that fulfilling of the Law which was first effected in the person of this Son and then made over to Believers by imputation 2. This Lawfulfilling coming in as the high product of the Love and Wisdom of God it may very probably be conjectured that if there be one fulfilling of the Law higher than another the highest here must be taken and therefore it must not be that which is but inchoate and imperfect in us but rather that which was compleat full perfect in Christ 3. Though the fulfilling of the Law be sometimes taken in that lower sense which hath been mentioned yet the Law-righteousness more usually notes that exact universal Obedience which the Law requires which notion therefore we may the rather be induced here to follow 4. The Interpretation given by these worthy persons will not so well suit with what the Apostle is now upon he is in short summing up the grand benefits that Saints have by Christ shewing how they are secured from Condemnation and restored to a state of happiness In order to which he first sets down the expiation of Sin the satisfaction of God's Justice c. which were done by Christ's Sacrifice or passive Obedience in dying Then he goes on to that which was further to be done the Holiness of God and of his Law must be satisfied also eternal Life must be merited now these must be done by Christ's active Obedience or fulfilling the Laws righteousness therefore that he adds that the righteousness of the Law c. Wherefore we must here understand Christ's Obedience as imputed not our own as inherent if that word be proper otherwise we shall leave out one of the great benefits which we have by Christ viz. that which results from his active Obedience and one of the wayes wherein he did promote our salvation whereas the Apostle designs to set down both distinctly Third Interpretation the righteousness of the Law is fulfilled in Saints perfectly yet not personally but imputatively 3. Thirdly Others open it thus the righteousness of the Law is fulfilled in Believers perfectly yet not personally but imputatively Their meaning is this the Lord Jesus in his own person whilst he was here on earth did fully obey
firm and fixed upon these Gospel Foundations That I might therefore heighten the knowledge and confirm the Faith of such I have been somewhat large upon these things in the managing whereof if I have done too much for the Unlearned and too little for the Learned I am sorry for it § 11. Of all the Controversies with which the Church is pestred I have as the Texts did lead me most concerned my self in those wherein we have to do with Papists and Socinians but principally with the Latter These not that I in other things acquit the Former are the great impugners of the Christian Faith in their denying Christs Godhead eternal Sonship Pre-existence before his Nativity of the Virgin wherein they are worse than the old Arrians Satisfaction his being a proper Sacrifice for Sin the main Ends of his Death c. Against whom therefore I have endeavoured to assert and maintain these high and glorious Truths which are indeed Truths of the first magnitude What thoughts others may have of Socinianism I know not I know my own And might I presume so far as to give advice to my Reverend Brethren in the Ministry I would humbly advise them to set themselves to their utmost against it For it doth not only strike at the whole platform of the Gospel but of all other Opinions it gets nearest to the very Vitals thereof this cursed worm grows in the Gospels best fruit 't is for the poysoning of those Fountains from which the streams of Life do most immediately flow whilst many other Errours endanger but the remoter parts this endangers the very heart of Christianity can we say or do too much to secure Souls from it and to defend the Gospel against it God prevent the growth of it in all the Churches of Christ § 12. If in the discussing of these Points I have said nothing but what the Learned in their Treatises about them have said before yet however two things I have done 1. According to my duty I have given my Testimony to the great Truths of God let it signifie what he pleases 2. I hope I have I am sure it hath been my endeavour made some things in themselves dark and intricate to be somewhat more plain and intelligible to weaker Capacities and if I have done but that though I have brought no new matter my pains have not been ill spent My Souls desire is that the Professors of this Age may be well grounded in the Articles of the Christian Faith and that they may attain to a clearer insight into Gospel Mysteries than what as yet they have attained to and if what is here done shall conduce to the promoting of these most desirable things it will be a sufficient recompence to me for all the labour that I have been at § 13. I observe that many private Christians will read over those Controversies in a Sermon which they care not to read in Treatises professedly penn'd about them the Reason of which I suppose is this they meet with that in a Sermon which they do not in a Treatise viz. when the Argumentative part is over they come to something that is practical the bone being broken they have marrow and sweetness to feed upon It hath been my care all along in this work to answer herein the expectation and desire of good Souls for at the close of every knotty Subject I have always made thereof some plain and useful Application that so I might reach both the Head and the Heart too § 14. So long as the strife lay between an Israelite and an Egyptian the matter was not very sad but when the Israelite and the Israelite strove one against the other then 't was sad indeed So here so long as the contention was 'twixt Romanists and Socinians on one hand and Protestants on the other 't was well enought but when Protestants divide and differ among themselves that 's matter of great sadness In the Body of this Work I have had occasion only to contend with the Former and there I had nothing but comfort but in the End I was necessitated to take notice of and to interest my self in a difference between the Latter concerning the imputation of Christs Active Obedience which * Amongst whom in its proper place had not my memory fail'd me I should have cited that truly eminent Person Bishop Reynolds on Psal 110. pag. 440. c. some are for and some against and that afflicted me more than all that went before For though in my own judgment I am very well satisfied for the Affirmative yet it troubles me that I should therein dissent from those whose Names as to the dead I highly honour and whose Persons as to the living I dearly love Well! these differences will be till Heaven unite us all and blessed be God in this point we may differ salvo Fidei fundamento I hope we shall make it to appear to the world that we can dissent and yet love that whereunto we have attained we shall walk by the same rule and if in any thing we be otherwise minded God shall reveal even this unto us according to that excellent decision of the Apostle in cases of this nature § 15. But Reader I must not detain thee longer in giving thee any further account of the Particulars treated of in these Sermons do but thy self read over the Contents of the several Chapters and they will in short give thee a prospect of the Matter and Method of the whole Thou seest already a great part of my Way hitherto hath been somewhat rough and craggy I hope in what follows it will be more smooth and easie bating those passages which some Expositors conceive Peter referr'd unto when he spake of some things in Pauls Epistles hard to be understood however I must take it as it falls § 16. Two things as to the whole will be objected against me the One is over much prolivity As to which all that I can say for my self is 1. The Subjects insisted upon are so various lying so near the very heart of Religion bearing so high a place in Evangelical Faith so necessary to be understood by all and so desperately struck at by Opposers that truly for my part I thought pardon me if I was mistasten I could hardly be too full in the Explication Confirmation and Application of them Good Reader please to read over the bare Heads I go upon as they will occur by and by and then tell me whether so many and such fundamental Truths could well have been crowded into a lesser room But 2. if this will not satisfie such as are most judicious it shall be mended in what is to follow § 17. The Other is the unnecessariness of this Undertaking so many already having wrote upon this Chapter Answ So many who or where are those so many I wish I could see them I deny not but that many both Ancients and Moderns have written Commentaries upon it for
the clearing up of the Sense of the Words for whose labours I bless God and shall in this Work endeavour to make the best improvement of them but having done that there they leave off I hope I go further than so not satisfying my self barely to give the Sense and Meaning of the Text which is the proper work of an Expositor but also drawing out that Sense and making the best advantage of it for things Doctrinal and Practical which is the work of a Preacher I acknowledge also that some have particularly and fully wrote upon it in the way which I take as Mr. Elton Cowper Parr Streso Philips Binning to the 15 Verse but not so but that there is yet room for the industry of Others there are good gleanings in this large field yet left for them that shall come after I will not for my vindication fly to that common Maxime Good things we cannot hear or read too often 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but I desire so much right may be done me as to compare what I have now done with what others upon this Chapter have done before if I do no more than they I deserve the severest Censure but if I do the Reader then I hope will be so candid yea so just as to let me have his favourable Sentence I am conscious to my self of many weaknesses in the work but as to the charge of but doing that which was done before pardon me if in that I stand upon my vindication § 18. * Sumite matetiam vestris qui scribitis aequam Viribus versate din quid ferre recusent Quid valeant humeri He gave good advice to them that will be printing who counsell'd them to pitch upon such Subjects which might not be above their strength seriously to consider before they engaged whether they were able to go through with what they undertook I have duly weigh'd the mysteriousness and difficulties of the things which I am to write upon and the more I look into them the more I find them to be above me yet for all this I am not discouraged because I trust I shall have an higher strength than mine own to help me and to carry me through all of them Horat. so as that some benefit may accrue to Souls The way of the Lord is strength to the upright Prov. 10.29 he that hath Gods Call needs not to question Gods Help and if he will help the weakest Instrument shall be strong enough for the highest and hardest work * Retract l. 1. c. 25. Austine that great and blessed man tells us of himself he had begun a Comment upon this Epistle to the Romans but the difficuity of the matter he met with made him give over I have in what I have done encountred with some difficulties more are before me as to what is yet to be done but I bless the Lord I am not disheartened by them so as to think of giving over the work * 1 Sam. 30.6 But David encouraged himself in the Lord his God and in my present case I desire to do the same Difficulties in the way of service should but quicken our diligence and heighten our dependance upon God not take us off from doing our duty Yea further I am not without some discouragement as to my external condition the Sun as to bodily Health and some other Considerations is going off from me few plants are so situated as to have the Fore-noon and After-noon Sun too but that doth not quite discourage me neither May I but have the warm influences of the blessed Spirit and the Sun of righteousness with his sweet beams yet shining upon me I trust though outwardly I decline and decay I shall yet finish what I have begun § 19. The Chapter being commonly divided into three Parts I hop'd I should have finished one in each Volume and so have drawn the whole into three but these Four Verses taking up so much room I am forc'd to allot two Volumes to the First Part hoping to grasp the two other Parts in two more So that in my four days Journey as it were I have as yet gone but one of them but he that hath been with me in that will I trust be with me in the other also § 20. I must not be too bold with God in entitling him to what I do yet I would fain hope that 't is by his special Providence that I am engaged in this Undertaking wherein I should be exceedingly confirmed might I see these First Fruits now published owned and blessed by him to the profit of many and with what chearfulness should I go on if I might in my first setting out have such encouragement Till I be able about this to pass a better judgment than as yet I can it will be best for me for some little time to stay my hand which accordingly I resolve upon I am very loth to burthen the world with unprofitable Labours may I do good all that I shall do will be too little but without that that which I have already done is too much Well! Success and good Issues must be expected only of God and referred wholly to Him he hath enabled me to do something which if he please to bless it shall prosper but if he deny his blessing I have laboured in vain Now Reader for the helping on so great a mercy I beg thy Prayers yea thy best Prayers when thou art with God in secret remember me and the work in hand I earnestly entreat thee indeed I need all thy praying help wherein if thou beest wanting thou thy self maist be damnified thereby If thou wilt forget me I trust I shall not forget thee in my poor prayers that God will bless thee in the clearer revealing of Gospel mysteries to thee the fuller illumination of thy Understanding in Spiritual things the confirming and stablishing of thee in the great Truths of God the daily heightening and perfecting of thy Graces the sanctifying of all Helps and Means publick and private to the furtherance of thy salvation In a word that thou maist be the person in Christ Jesus living the spiritual Life and thereby that the No-condemnation and all the other branches of the precious Grace of God spoken of in these Verses yea in the whole Chapter may be all thine So for the present I leave thee remaining An unfeigned Wisher of thy Spiritual and Eternal Good THO JACOME The following Errata's partly the Printers and partly mine Own thou art desired Reader to correct as follows PAg. 2. l. 23. for No-condemnation r. Exemption from Condemnation P. 7. l. 32. r known P. 66. l. 34. r. God speaks P. 94. l. 21. r. restraining P. 123. Marg. r. Christiano P. 185. l. 25. dele some P. 190. l. 5. r. 2 Tim. 2.25 P. 208. l. 9. r. dominion and power P. 213. l. 3. r. this grief P. 233. l. 38. r. Jer. 32.17 P. 241. l. 18. r. Chrysostome P. 243. l. 4.
would not for some considerations put him to death 1 Kings 2.26 so here the highest in Grace have that in them which renders them worthy of Condemnation but yet they being in Christ and thereupon sin not being imputed they shall not actually be condemned This is the true and genuine sense of the words There is therefore now no Condemnation to them c. and thus our (a) Non dicit non esse pecâ—atum c. sed remitti propter Eidem in Christum Melanct. in Dispos Orat. ad Ep. ad Rom. p. 18. Credentibus nulla est Condemnatio non per se quidem sed ex accidenti h. e. ex Dei misericordiâ non imputantis eis peccata ad condemnationem Parens in Resp ad Dub. 1. Notandum est quod non dicit Nihil condemnabile aut 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Non dicit in Christianis nihil esse amplius peccatorum c. sed esse illos condemnationi quae peccato competit exemptos Habent quidem Sancti reliquias peccati verù extra condemnationem sunt proptet Gratiam Christi c. Museul Protestant Expositors open them wherein their Opinions are so far from being ex Orco excitatae fetch'd from Hell as (b) Disput 1. in Cap. 8. ad Rom. Pererius with virulency and malice truly ex Orco excitata is pleased to say that they are from Heaven from the God of truth and fully consonant to the Word of truth 3. I premise Thirdly That 't is Gods Condemnation onely from which such as are in Christ are exempted the Universal Negative No Condemnation reaches no further than the supream final irreversible condemnatory Sentence of the great God As to this all in Christ are safe but there is other Condemnation which they do lye under Take a threefold instance of this 1. Men condemn them I mean the wicked who are and always have been condemners of the righteous The Saints as assessors with Christ shall * 1 Cor. 6.2 judge the world hereafter and the world will be judging the Saints here the Saints condemn Sinners by their holy conversation as 't is said of Noah * Heb. 11.7 He prepared an Ark by which he condemned the World and they will be condemning the Saints in that false judgement those sharp censures which they are pleased to pass upon them What more common than for the Godly to have their persons practises strict walking condemned by a mistaken and malicious World O they are Hypocrites factious * Ezra 4.15 seditious turbulent * 1 Kings 18.17 troublers of Kingdoms unnecessarily scrupulous proud selfish false covetous and indeed what not Sometimes the Condemnation is only Verbal going no further than bitter words wherein their names are aspersed the innocency of their persons sullied the goodness of their Cause blackened Sometimes it rises higher men condemn Gods people even to the taking away of their Lives as Jam. 5.6 You have condemned and killed the just c. this is the condemning of the soul of the poor Psal 109. ult though possibly there may be something more in this expression than striking at the bare natural Life for such is the inveterate malice of the wicked against the godly that they will be condemning of them even as to their final and everlasting state they condemn the Soul of the poor even to Hell it self thus the condemned world is a condemning world But yet God condemns not neither here nor hereafter all this is but mans day and * 1 Cor. 4.3 mans judgment the righteous God judges otherwise of his people He 's so far from condemning them that he will openly vindicate them against all the groundless accusations and condemnations of their enemies 'T was Davids Prayer to God Let my sentence come forth from thy presence Psal 17.2 q. d. Lord man doth thus and thus pass sentence upon my person cause actions but Lord do thou thy self pass sentence upon me that I am sure will be as just and righteous as the sentence of my enemies is false and malicious and do not keep thy Sentence about me to thy self but let it come forth from thy presence that the world may see and know what I am and what thoughts thou hast of me 'T is a very gracious promise that in Psal 37.32.33 The wicked watcheth the righteous and seeketh to slay him the Lord will not leave him in his hand nor condemn him when he is judged i. e. though man condemn God will not He will not always let such as are upright with him lie under the worlds Condemnation he will clear up their innocency as the light of the noon-day probably he may do this for them here but certainly he will do it at the Great day and certainly too which is more close to my business though men are very free in their condemning of them as to their present concerns yet God will not condemn them as to their State for eternity 2. Sometimes Conscience condemns them For this Conscience bears the place and office of a Judge in the Soul and therefore it will be passing Sentence with respect to mens state and actions and its Sentence often is in a condemnatory way If our heart condemn us not then have we confidence towards God 1 Joh. 3.21 I and 't is so even with Gods own Children upon the commission of some great sin or under some great darkness of spirit in time of conviction or desertion O how forward is Conscience then to condemn and to give in sad judgment upon them And truly a condemning Conscience is a very dreadful thing be they Saints or Sinners who lie under it they will all find it to be bad enough 't is a little Hell or an anticipation of Hell there 's no pain in the body comparable to the torment of a condemning Conscience a man had better be condemned of all the World than of his own Conscience Yet the people of God have this to comfort them though Conscience condemns below yet God doth not condemn above To the wicked 't is a condemning Conscience and a condemning God too O there 's the very height of misery to the Godly 't is sometimes a condemning Conscience but never a condemning God even when that speaks nothing but Guilt and wrath then God designs nothing but Grace and mercy The inferior Judge condemns in the Court below but the supream Judge acquits and justifies in the Court above 3. Satan too he will be condemning such as are in Christ He 's a proud Creature and loves to be upon the Bench and to assume that Authority and judicial Power which doth not belong to him O it greatly pleases him to be judging of the spiritual and eternal state of Believers he that is but Gods Executioner he 'le take upon him to be a Judge And as his Pride puts him upon judging so his malice puts him upon condemning there 's not an upright person in
than if God had said I will always be with thee So here as to Propositions when they are laid down in the Negative this form of expression doth add both greatness and certainty at least wise as to us to the matter of them And therefore Paul designing here to set forth the safety and happiness of Believers with the greatest advantage he chuses to express it in the Negative rather than in the Positive The Observat more strictly spoken to These things being premis'd I come now to the more close handling of the Point There is no Condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus Here I 'll shew 1. What this Condemnation is which the persons spoken of are secured from 2. I 'll make out the truth of the Assertion and give you the Grounds of it Condemnation opened 1. First 't is requisite I should a little open the Condemnation here mentioned The word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here in this Verse 't is the Substantive you have the Verb v. 3. and for sin condemned c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Participle v. 34. who is he that condemneth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sometimes 't is set forth by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Math. 23.14 1 Tim. 3.6 2 Pet. 2.3 Rom. 3.8 sometimes by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Joh. 3.19 Joh. 5.24 sometimes by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as 2 Cor. 3.9 These several words are promiscuously used to signifie one and the same thing That here in the Text commonly carries a very black and dreadful sense with it I do not deny but that sometimes 't is used to set forth temporal evils and punnishments as condemnation to a temporal death so Math. 20.18 Math. 27.3 but usually it as the Verb in this Composition is expressive of spiritual and eternal evils of everlasting death so Rom. 5.16.18 Mark 16.16 1 Cor. 11.32 As to its direct and proper notation it signifies judgment against one that 's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 't is a forensick word relating to what is in use amongst men in their Courts of Judicature To condemn Propriè judicis est cùm mulctam reo vel poenam per sententiam erogat 't is the Sentence of a Judge decreeing a mulct or penalty to be inflicted upon the guilty person Amongst men for the parallel will illustrate that which I am upon the Malefactor or guilty person is indicted arraigned before the Judge judicial process is form'd against him his offence is proved upon this the Judge passes sentence upon him that he is guilty of that which is charg'd upon him and then that he must undergo the penalty or penalties which are answerable to the nature and quality of his crime if that be Capital he must dye for it So here the impenitent unbelieving sinner is indicted arraigned at Gods Bar process is made against him he is found guilty of the violation of the holy Law and which is worse of the contempt of the Gospel too whereupon God judges him to be guilty and upon that guilt adjudges him to everlasting death this is Gods condemning or condemnation in allusion to that condemnation which is amongst men Pareus makes it to be the damnatory sentence of the Law that * Gal. 3.10 Curse which it denounceth upon all and against all because of sin Grotius makes it to be that eternal death spoken of Rom. 6 ult several such Glosses there are upon it but all tend to one and the same thing Condemnation refers to Guilt and Punnishment Condemnation is either respectu Culpae Reatus or Poenae in respect of Guilt or Punnishment for both of these are included in it God condemns the sinner how why first he judges him to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 guilty of that which the Law charges him with O saith the Law Sinner thus and thus thou hast offended such Duties have been omitted such sins have been committed such Sabbaths have been profaned such mercies have been abused such tenders of grace have been slighted here the Gospel Law comes in as an accuser too c. Well now saith God Sinner what dost thou say to this charge is it true or false canst thou deny it what defence or plea canst thou make for thy self Alas he is * Math. 22.12 speechless hath not one word to say for himself he can neither deny nor excuse or extenuate what is charged upon him Why then saith God the righteous Judge I must pronounce and I do here pronounce thee to be guilty And is this all no upon this guilt the Law pleads for a further Sentence for the decreeing and inflicting of the penalty threatned by God himself and incurred by the sinner Ah saith God and I cannot deny it I must be just and righteous and therefore Sinner I here adjudge thee to dye eternally This is Condemnation in the extensive notion of it if you consider it with respect to Guilt so 't is opposed to justification if you consider it with respect to Punishment so 't is opposed to Salvation In the former notion you have it Rom. 5.16 18. And not as it was by one that sinned so is the gift for the judgment was by one to condemnation but the free gift is of many offences to Justification Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life In the second notion you have it Mark 16.16 He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved but he that believeth not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall be condemned These are the two things which make up the Condemnation in the Text Guilt and Death from both of which such as are in Christ are secured they shall neither be judged Guilty their Guilt being done away by Christ and the Sentence proceeding according to what they are in Christ and not according to what they are in themselves nor shall a Sentence of eternal Death pass upon them for guilt being taken off that would not be righteous there is therefore none of this Condemnation to Believers Of the Sentence and State of Condemnation There is the Sentence of Condemnation and the State of Condemnation the former actively considered refers to God and is his Act the latter refers to the Sinner and is consequential upon the former The Sentence hath been already opened the State of Condemnation is the Sinners undergoing of the utmost of Vindictive Justice in his eternal separation from God and enduring of everlasting torments in Hell of which you will hear more in what follows Neither of these do belong to them who are in Christ Jesus not the former they being now justified not the latter they being sure to be glorified I shall take in both yet mainly freedom from the State of Condemnation the Apostle I conceive had this chiefly in his eye when he here said There is now no Condemnation
c. Justification and no Condemnation with respect to the Sentence are all one onely the one notes what is Positive the other what is Negative now the Apostle in the words inferring No Condemnation from Justification as you will see he doth by and by it appears that his eye was upon something distinct from and consequential upon Justification and that must be exemption from the state of Condemnation There is no Condemnation c. 't is as if he had said such shall not be condemned hereafter or lie under that damnation in Hell which will be the portion of Unbelievers to this therefore I shall chiefly speak Condemnation Virtual or Actual Further as some distinguish of Justification 't is either Virtual or Actual either in Title as to the Sentence of the Word here or full and compleat in the Sentence which shall solemnly be pronounced by God at the Great day So we may also distinguish of Condemnation 't is either Virtual that which is now in the Sentence of the Law or Gospel or Actual that which is to come when God by Christ will in a publick and solemn way pass a condemnatory Sentence upon men according to the Word and this shall be at the Last and Great Judment You read of the First Joh. 3.18 He that believeth on him is not condemned he that believeth not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is condemned already so v. 26. of that Chapt. Of the Second Mark 16.16 and in divers other places In both of these senses also Gods people are exempted from Condemnation take it Virtually or Actually in Titlo here or in the Final Sentence of the Judge hereafter it belongs not to them And this I am now to make good which was the Second Head that I propounded to speak to The Observ proved The Negation in the Text is so express so absolute and peremptory that there cannot be the least doubt of the truth of it Indeed as to the application of this to a mans self in Hypothesi so there may be many doubts arising in the Soul concerning it but as to the Thing it self in Thesi nothing more sure and certain than it is You have it asserted not only in this single Scripture but in divers others also Joh. 3.18 He that believeth on him is not condemned neither is nor ever shall be Joh. 5.24 Verily verily I say unto you Christ would have Believers fully settled in the belief of this precious Truth and therefore he premises asseveration upon asseveration and gives you his own Authority for it he that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation but is passed from death to life Read Joh. 3.16.36 Mark 16.16 1 Thess 1.10 If you look into the Text for I 'le go no further you will find a double Argument or Ground for the Non-condemnation of Believers The strength and import the Illative therefore opened 1. The First lies couch'd in the Illative Particle There is therefore now no Condemnation c. What doth this therefore point to when that is found out we must then enquire what there is of strength in it to prove and bottom Non condemnation upon For Answer to this Expositors do somewhat differ about it Some make it to refer to all that goes before from the 16 v. of the 1 Chapt. Est conclusio totius superioris disputationis à v. 16. primi Capitis Beza 'T is a Conclusion drawn from all that hath been taught hitherto Deodate Others limit it to some special part of the Apostles foregoing Discourse in this Epistle And so some apply it to what he had laid down in the 3 4 5 Chapt. where he insists upon Justification and proves at large that Believers are justified and that through the Righteousness of Christ which being so from this their blessed state and this gracious act of God upon them he here infers There is therefore now no Condemnation c. Others again make the Spring-head of the Inference to lie in the 7 Chapt. especially in the close of it Paul there thanks God who had delivered him from the body of sin through Christ he says with his mind his renewed and sanctified part he served the Law of God though with the flesh the carnal and unregenerate part he served the law of sin Now * Thus Bucer Insert ad illud in proximâ sectione Gratias ago c. Thus Pareus Illatio est valdè vehemens ex praecedenti querelâ Gratulatione Thus Musculus Nulla Condemnatio c. Quare referendum est istud exordium ad Gratiarum actionem capitis praecedentis quà dixit Gratias ago c. Thus Tolet Connexa est haec sententia ultimis praecedentis capitis verbis ex ipsis deducitur Pendet initium hoc tam saustum faelix ex hoc quod ultimò dictum est in fine praecedentis Corn. Mussus from this he draws the Conclusion There is therefore now no Condemnation c. I for my part will not limit the Inference to the One or to the Other but I 'le take in All yet I 'le consider the whole in its main Parts viz. Justification and Sanctification The Non-condemnation then of persons in Christ may be proved by or is grounded upon Non condemnation of Believers proved from their Justification 1. Their Justification He that is a justified man cannot be a condemned man for these two are contrary and incompatible If it be justifying it cannot be condemning if it be condemning it cannot be justifying There being in justification an acquitting absolving discharging from Guilt how can this consist with the condemning of one as guilty or because guilty this would be a plain contradiction oppositum in apposito 'T is with Law-contraries as 't is with Physicalcontraries upon the position of the one there needs must be the exclusion or negation of the other now Justification and Condemnation are Law-contraries ergo c. The Apostle argues upon this v. 33. Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods Elect and surely there must be charging before there can be condemning but there can be none of that why because it is God that justifieth The Believer being justified and justified by God too he must needs be exempted from Condemnation He that will not acquit the guilty will not condemn the righteous * Prov. 17.15 for both are equally an abomination to the Lord Now the justified person is a righteous person for else what doth his justification signifie and will the righteous Judge condemn a righteous person 'Pray that you may the better perceive how the deduction in the Text is grounded look back a little into the Epistle and see what the Apostle there lays down concerning Justification He says and this is the main Position upon which he doth but enlarge in all his following discourse Therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith ch 1.16 Even
was willing to be condemned in you there is very much to deserve condemnation and yet you shall never be condemned here 's the admirable boundless infinite love of Christ VSE 4. Comfort to all in Christ Lastly The main tendency and drift of this Truth is Comfort to Believers and what a full breast of Consolation is here for such as are in Christ No condemnation to them this no condemnation is the ground of all Consolation what a word is here for Faith and Hope O magnae spei verbum as he crys out what a * Ut frustra sibi blanditur homo carnalis si de emendandâ vitâ nihil sollicitus huâ—us gratiae praetextu impunitatem sibi promittat Ita habent trepidae piorum conscientiae invictum propugnaculum quòd dum in Christo manent sciunt se esse extra omne damnationis periculum Calv. in loc mighty support is here for poor doubting and dejected Souls The great thing that such are afraid of is Condemnation but here 's that which secures them from it the assertion is very express and full and 't is grounded too upon a sure foundation there is now no Condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus O you that are in Christ as your thankfulness should be high so your joy should be high also and what will raise your joy if this will not 'Pray improve it upon all occasions and be chearful Set this against all the present evils you meet with God afflicts you but he will not condemn you why should you be troubled affliction becomes very tolerable upon No-condemnation what though it be sickness pain loss of Relations a low estate so long as the soul is safe and the main state secured there may be * 1 Pet. 4.12 fiery tryals here but there 's no * Mark 9.43 unquenchable fire to burn in hereafter O there 's comfort What are the comforts of this world if we shall be kept out of Heaven and what are the crosses of this world if we shall be kept out of Hell Take the wicked there 's condemnation at the bottom of all their good take the Saints there 's Salvation at the bottom of all their evil Again men condemn you ah but God will not condemn you this is but * 1 Cor. 4.3 mans day where you may have the worst of it but Gods day is coming and then all will go on your side O let it be a very little thing to you to be judged of man so long as God doth and will acquit You have Sin in you too much God knows yet 't is no condemnation and if sin it self it being pardoned and * Rev. 1.5 washed away by the blood of Christ if this I say shall not condemn you what then shall After Pauls sad complaints of sin yet he here says there 's no condemnation Condemn your selves for sin you do and so you should do provided this self-condemnation flow from Repentance not from Vnbelief but the great God by whose judicial Sentence your everlasting state shall be ordered will not condemn you for it 'T will be so far from this that as some * Hinc fidelium peccata non prodibunt in judicium Quum enim in istâc vitâ per sententiam justificationis tecta sunt ablata ultimum illud judicium confirmatio erit manifestatio ejusdem sententiae non esset consentaneum ut in lucem denuo tum temporis proferantur Ames Med. lib. 1. cap. 41. Divines hold the sins of Believers shall not be so much as mentioned at the great day The Law is a condemning thing 't is so indeed in it self but 't is not so to you who are in Christ You must dye and be judged but welcome death welcome judgment so long as there is no condemnation why should you be afraid of these which will only let you see the accomplishment of what is here affirmed This is the happiness of you who are in Christ will you act faith upon it and take the comfort of it I would have you live and dye with this Cordial always by you there is therefore now no condemnation c. And let me add 't is not only your priviledge but your duty to rejoyce because of this 't is not only you may but you ought to be cheerful you cannot be otherwise unless you either distrust or disparage what is here spoken of The Sinner hath no reason to be jocund and merry for he is liable every moment to Condemnation the Saint hath no reason to be dejected and pensive for he is out of all danger of Condemnation The Sinner is secure as though there was no Hell and the Saint is sad and cast down as though there was no Heaven the good Lord convince the one and comfort the other I 'le close all with two words of advice 1. Get assurance in your own Souls that there is to you No Condemnation 'T is a sad thing to live under peradventures about this may be God will save and may be too God will damn to hang in doubtfulness 'twixt Heaven and Hell is a very uncomfortable state Were you but clear in your evidences about this Priviledge you could not but rejoyce Now in order to this do but make sure of your Vnion with Christ and that will assure you of No Condemnation 2. Let this Happiness be a great incentive to Holiness 'T is good to infer Duty from Mercy Are you secured from Condemnation what manner of persons should you be How should you differ from others here who shall so differ from others hereafter Though Sin shall not condemn you yet do you condemn it I 'le end with an allusion to that of our Saviour to the Woman taken in Adultery * Joh. 8.10 11. Woman saith Christ where are those thine accusers hath none condemned thee she said No man Lord. And Jesus said unto her Neither do I condemn thee go and Sin no more ROM 8.1 There is therefore now no Condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus c. CHAP. II. Of the Saints Vnion with Christ The Subject of the Proposition next opened What it is to be in Christ Jesus The difference betwixt Christs being in Believers and their being in Christ Vnion with Christ a great Mystery A threefold Vnion The Vnion of Three Persons in one Nature the Vnion of two Natures in one Person the Vnion of Persons where Persons and Natures are distinct This is Mystical Legal or Moral Scripture Resemblances by which the Mystical Union is shadowed out Its Properties 'T is a Sublime Real Spiritual Intimous Total Immediate Indissoluble Vnion Use 1. For Tryal whether we be in Christ A double distinction concerning this Vnion with Christ is either Material and Natural or Spiritual and Supernatural Either External and Visible or Internal and Invisible How it may be known whether we be really and savingly in Christ. Some Scriptures insisted upon for the Evidence of this Use 2.
Spirit O stupendious folly most woful infatuation The Apostle describing the natural state saith For we our selves also were sometimes foolish 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without any understanding or intellective faculty wherein serving divers lusts and pleasures O that is to be foolish indeed And he elsewhere speaking of lusts themselves calls them too 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 foolish and hurtful 1 Tim. 6.9 Flesh-followers are apt to admire their own wisdome but they fall under that sad character Rom. 1.20 Professing themselves to be wise they became fool◠3. 'T is groundless and unreasonable walking Bate but the Sinners pleasing himself which is a pitiful reason and what reason hath he to serve or gratifie the Flesh what can it plead for any subjection or obedience to it This our Apostle here takes notice of v. 12. we are debtors not to the flesh to live after the flesh We are debtors indeed to God every way to him we owe our Love Obedience c. our All but what do we owe the flesh what hath it done or suffered for us hath it redeemed us was it crucified for us surely no! Justice and gratitude call upon us to live to God and Christ but for the Flesh we are under no obligation at all to live to it rather the quite contrary Why should we pay where we owe nothing and not pay where we owe our-all were we but so just and honest as to pay our debts sure I am we should walk after the Spirit and not after the Flesh 4. 'T is uncomfortable walking Isa 57.20 21. The wicked are like the troubled Sea when it cannot rest whose waters cast up mire and dirt There is no peace saith my God to the wicked Isa 59.8 They have made them crooked paths whosoever goeth therein shall not have peace Sin and Comfort cannot go together he loses the one who closes with the other A wicked life saith (a) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plat◠de Leg. lib. 2. p. 663. Plato is not onely a sordid but a more unpleasant life than that which is vertuous the bare light of Nature led divers of the ancient (b) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Plutarch 101. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Idem in Tract Ne suaviter quidem c. p. 1087. Moralists to assert this over and over And Sinners may put the best face upon it but they find this to be true by their own sad experience they feel it their Consciences plainly tell them of it every day that there is little true joy in a sinful sensual course O the sad gripes of Conscience which they meet with in the way of sin which though they endeavour to smother yet they pursue and vex them from time to time But suppose the way of the Flesh at present be not uncomfortable to be sure in the final issue it will be so when the Sensualist and ungodly wretch shall see death making its near approaches to him when Conscience shall force him to take a review of his ill-spent life when he shall be called to stand before the tribunal of his Judge I say how will it be then will it be joy and comfort no but instead thereof inexpressible anguish and horrour of spirit O let not the Flesh deceive you its (c) Heb. 11.25 pleasures are but for a season its (d) Delectatio occidit praeteriit volneravit transivit miserum fecit abiit infaelicem reddidit reliquit August de Temp. Serm. 3. delights are soon over and gone and then that which was hony in the mouth turns into gall and wormewood in the belly Poor deluded creatures think to take their fill of it but in a little time God finds them out sets home their sin and folly gives them the prospect of a dreadful eternity and what follows first Hell is in their Souls and then in a little time their Souls are in Hell And therefore as you desire to be kept from this misery and to have peace and comfort in Life and Death see that you abandon the Flesh so as not to walk after it 5. 'T is walking which ends in eternal perdition O that this might be believed before it be felt Sirs whom will you believe Sin and the Flesh which are made up of lyes and do their business by lyes or the God of truth and the Word of truth He tells you therein (e) Rom. 8.6 To be carnally minded is death (f) Rom. 8.13 If ye live after the Flesh ye shall dye (g) Gal. 6.8 He that soweth to the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption There is no condemnation to them which walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit then there is condemnation to them who walk after the Flesh c. (h) Jam. 2.15 Sin when it is finished it brings forth death with many such Scriptures Now shall not this deter you from a fleshly conversation if this will not what will Salomon speaking of the strange Woman tells us * Prov. ◠18 her house inclineth unto death and her paths to the dead just so it is with fleshly Walking Nothing more certain than that every mans end shall be according to his course as he sowes so shall he reap Gal. 6.7 now there are two very different ends and two very different courses there is Heaven and Hell two very different ends and there is walking after the flesh and after the spirit two very different courses If you fall in with the Former that will most certainly lead you to Hell if with the Latter that will as certainly lead you to Heaven which of these Courses now will you chuse Condemnation is as sure to them who walk after the Flesh as No-Condemnation is to them who walk after the Spirit So much for the third Motive 4. Fourthly let me add but one Disuasive more and that is the Death of Christ What a consideration is this to take men off from a carnal life O when this flesh begins to stir and pirk up it self you will do well in order to the suppressing of it to fix your thoughts upon your dying Redeemer Say when my Saviour hath died for Sin shall I live in Sin when he was * 1 Joh. 3.8 manifested on purpose to destroy the works of the Flesh and of the Devil shall I yet walk after them was the sinless Flesh in Christ crucified and shall the sinful Flesh in me be cherished You read of the crucifiion of the Flesh Gal. 5.24 we should be for nothing short of that for no better usage doth it deserve from us When Pilate ask'd the enraged Jews against our blessed Lord What shall I then do with Jesus which is called Christ they all said unto him Let him be crucified and when he a little hung off from this cruelty What evil hath he done they cryed out the more saying Let him be crucified Matth. 27.22 23. This was not so much their sin in being so cruel
together unless that which we build upon them or infer from them do agree with other Scriptures where the Thing is fully and professedly handled I dare not undervalue the least the meanest particle in God's Word yet I would be loath to bottom a fundamental Article of Faith upon such a particle especially when it admits of various senses as this here doth if it hath not the current of the Word to back it For our Opinion of Justification by the alone righteousness of Christ imputed to the Sinner and laid hold on by Faith we ground it upon several full and entire Discourses where our Apostle doth professedly handle that Argument proving Justification to be according to what we hold But our Adversaries to prove their justification by inherent righteousness very often I do not say always catch at some little single word and that they make the foundation which they build this Opinion upon In short against this For in the Text I mean too onely as they pervert it for in truth they have not so much as even this little Word to favour them we set the whole third fourth fifth Chapter of this Epistle to the Romans where the Apostle in a full discourse upon it doth plainly lay Justification upon imputed not upon inherent righteousness and which of us now do build upon the surest and safest bottom 2. What if this particle supposing it to be Causal doth point to the description of the persons and not to the priviledge some of their own * Stapl. ut prius Tolet. Causam exponit cur qui sunt in Christo non secundum carnem ambulant Authors do carry it so where then is the strength of their Argument from it to prove the fonmal Cause of No Condemnation All that then can be deduced from the Words is this that Grace in the heart is the Cause of an holy life that men upon regeneration are delivered from the Law of Sin and therefore they walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit what is this against us And with respect to their Glosses who questions or denies inherent righteousness or that that doth free from sin provided you take it with a double limitation 1. that the freeing from Sin upon regeneration be understood of the taking away its power 2. that it be not carried so far as quite to justle out imputed righteousness or set so high as to have that attributed to it which is onely proper to Christs righteousness Our * Si Spiritus vitae vivificans Sanctificans c. Ergo liberati sumus à Lege peccati mortis Regeneratione Sanctificatione non solâ Justitiae imputatione Gratia ergo inhaerens est quae liberat à peccato Contz Quaest 1. in Vers 2. cap. 8. ad Rom. Torsit hic locus tà m Calvinum quam Bezam quia inhaerentem Justitiam per veram peccati victoriam luculentèr probat imputativam subvertit Stapl. Antidot p. 625. Adversaries misrepresent our Opinions and trouble themselves in a great measure to prove that which we never deny and then asperse us as though we did deny it 3. 'T is one thing to be the Proof of a thing another thing to be the Cause of that thing Regeneration indeed proves Justification for every regenerate person is a justified person but 't is not the cause of justification for the person is not therefore justified because he is regenerated but because Christ's righteousness by Faith is made over to him 'T is one thing to say therefore a man lives because he hath sense and moves and another thing to say therefore a man lives because he hath a living Soul in him the Sense and motion prove the life but 't is the living Soul which is the cause of life So here the Believer shall not be condemned because the Law of the Spirit of Life c. this evinces the certainty of the thing but 't is not the proper Cause of it So that the For in the Text is onely Nota probationis but not causalitatis and so 't is used up and down in the Gospel in very many places 4. 'T is very true that (a) Legem Spiritus impropriè vocat Dei Spiritum qui animas nostras Christi sanguine aspergit non tantum ut à peccati labe emundet quoad reatum sed ut in veram pietatem sanctificet Calvin Calvin in part doth interpret the Words of regeneration and inherent righteousness but then foreseeing the Objection that would be made upon it he explains himself about it and saith (b) Siquis excipiat veniam ergo quâ sepeliuntur nostra delicta pendete à regeneratione facilis est solutio Non assignari causam à Paulo sed modum tradi duntaxae quo solvimur à reatu Calvin If any shall reply that then pardon or justification doth depend upon regeneration the Answer says he is obvious Paul doth not set down the Cause wherefore we are absolved from Guilt onely the Manner wherein this is done He adds further (c) Perinde valet haec sententia ac si dixisset Paulus Regenerationis Gratiam ab imputatione Justitiae nunquam disjungi 'T is as much as if the Apostle had said that regeneration is never separated or parted from the imputation of Christs righteousness So that he doth not argue for Non-condemnation or Justification from inherent righteousness as the proper Cause of it but onely as these two always go together and as this is the order and method of God wherein he justifies And 't is true too that * Legem Spiritus Vitae nec pro lege fidei c. sed pro ejus efficaciâ per quam peccatum i. e. corruptio ipsaque adeo mors sensìm aboletur ut docet infra V. 10. 11. denique pro Regenerationis gratiâ accipio cui opponitur carnis i. e. Naturae nostrae corruptio Beza Beza doth take in here under the Law of the Spirit Regeneration and Sanctification but then 't is very well known what he makes to be the Law of the Spirit of Life principally viz. the Sanctity and Holiness of Christ's humane Nature which he saith being imputed to the Believer he is thereupon justified * In his verbis Calvinum Orthodoxae Augustinianae expositioni conformitè dicere quis dubitaverit sed audiantur reliqua impostoris technae ac fraudes apparebunt Stapl. ubi supra Quam Legem Spiritus cum probè intellexissent recentiores Haeretici perperam transferunt non ad Gratiam justis inhaerâ—ntem sed ad externam Christi justitiam quam robis quodaminodo affingi volunt imputari Justin And now Calvin and Beza have lost all their credit So long as they expounded the Words of inherent righteousness they were very sound and orthodox but now they thus explain themselves no Censures are severe enough for them now if Stapleton may be believed they are not adulteratores sed carnifices Verbi Dei I know Pareus to avoid the
thy fetters love thy dungeon be fond of thy bondage and prefer it before liberty what is this but madness not to be parallel'd what ingratitude is this to thy Saviour what cruelty to thy self as to thee I may well alter Tiberius's ô gentem c. into ô animam ad servitutem natam Further I pray you think of this if Sin rule you will Christ save you you cannot but know the contrary you know that he rules wherever he saves that he will be the Governour Where he is the Saviour that Sins yoke must be taken off and * Matth. 11.29 his yoke taken up or no salvation and yet shall Sin be obey'd and be thy Lord and Sovereign rather than Christ The business comes to a narrow issue let Christ rule thee and hee 'l save the but let Sin command thee and 't will condemn thee the Law of Christ and of the Spirit is the Law of Life but the Law of Sin is the Law of Death but these things have been insisted upon O that this Spirit which frees from the Law of Sin would shew you what there is in the Law of Sin men do not endeavour to get out of it because they are not convinc'd of the evil that is in it did they but know what it is they would choose to dye rather than to live under it And as for you let me ask you how you carry it in other respects you hate the Tyrant without will you love the Tyrant within you groan under the Laws of men when they are a little heavy shall there be no groanings under the far heavier Laws of Sin you will not be called slaves to any will you be content to be indeed slaves to Sin is a barbarous Turk cry'd out of when a Devil and a cursed Nature are never regarded But one Consideration more as God made you at the first you had nothing to do with this Law of Sin no he made you for his own government to be subject to himself his Law was written within you to command and act you in your whole course how then came Sin by this power how did it get up thus into the throne why onely by the first Apostacy from God Adams Fall was Sins Rise its reign commenc'd from mans rebellion 't is a meer upstart and intruder God never design'd this power to it will you now by your liking of it and continuance under it give an after-ratification or approbation of its power It hath depriv'd you of your primitive liberty and will you not endeavour to regain it when Sardis was taken by the Grecians Xerxes commanded that every day when he was at dinner one should cry aloud Sardis is lost Sardis is lost that hereby he might be inminded of what he had lost and stirr'd up to endeavour the regaining of it ô Sirs your Original Liberty is lost Sin hath got it out of your hands this we proclaim in your ears from time to time that you may never be quiet till you have recovered it and yet will you do nothing in order thereunto will you e'ne sit still under this inexpressible loss ô that 's sad All this hath been spoken to set you against Sins dominion to excite you to the most earnest endeavours to be rid of its soveraignty to cause you to fly to the Spirit of Life that you may be made free from the Law of Sin to work holy purposes in you that Sin shall no longer reign over you that you may say with the Church Isa 26.13 O Lord our God other Lords besides thee have had dominion over us but by thee onely will we make mention of thy name O that I might prevail with some Soul to say with respect to Sin Ah Lord other Lords have had dominion over me lust pride passion covetuousness sensuality have ruled me just as they pleas'd but I desire it may be so no longer I am resolved now onely to be subject to thy self ô do thou dethrone Sin and inthrone thy self in me let me be brought under universal hearty ready subjection to thy Laws and let not the Law of Sin carry it in me any longer c. One Direction given for the Sinners being freed from Sins power In what ways and by what means a poor enslaved Sinner may be made free from the Law of Sin is a very weighty enquiry and I would hope that some Sinners being convinc'd by what hath been spoken have it in their thoughts For answer to it there 's one Direction only which I shall at present give 't is this Get into the regenerate state regenerate persons are the adequate Subjects of this freedom they and none but they are freed from Sin as a Law Paul so long as he was unconverted was as much under this Law as any person whatsoever but as soon as it pleased God to convert him he was made free from it This deliverance depends upon the state it must be the state of regeneracy till which Sin will keep up its regency and soveraignty in the Soul ô as you have heard when Grace once comes into the heart the kingdom of Sin goes down and the kingdom of Christ goes up therein but never before All your strivings endeavours convictions purposes promises will never make Sins throne to shake and fall till you be renewed and sanctified Therefore pray much for the regenerating Spirit and attend much upon the regenerating Word in order to this great work Joh. 3.5 Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God Jam. 1.18 Of his own will begat he us by the Word of truth c. 1 Cor. 4.15 In Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the Gospel 't is this Spirit and this Word which must renew and bring about the new birth in you and so deliver you from the power of darkness and translate you into the kingdom of Gods dear Son as the Apostle speaks Col. 1.13 But this will be more properly enlarg'd upon when I shall come to the third Observation therefore here I 'le say no more about it VSE 3. To such who are made free from the Law of Sin first by way of Counsel 3. I will direct my self to those who by the Spirit of Life are made free from the Law of Sin something to them 1. by way of Counsell 2. by way of Comfort By way of Counsel I 'le urge three duties upon them 1. The first is hearty and deep humiliation and this is incumbent upon such partly upon what is past and partly upon what is present Regenerate persons to be deeply humbled though they be made free from the Law of Sin First hath the Lord been so gracious to any of you as to bring you out of the Natural bondage to dethrone and bring down this Sin which did at such a rate domineer over you ô you must be deeply humbled upon your taking a view of what is past
ire Cypr. fear it For to you 't will come without a sting and you know the Serpent that hath lost its sting may hiss but cannot hurt 't is in it self an enemy and the * 1 Cor. 15.26 last enemy but to you 't is an harmless because a conquer'd enemy it may seem to threaten the greatest evil but in truth it shall do you the greatest good But here lies your main happiness you are wholly exempted from eternal death the second death you shall dye but once and then live with God forever 'T is this second death that makes the first to be so formidable for a man to dye that he may live that 's not at all dreadful but to dye here in order to a worser death hereafter there 's the thing which is only dreadful When death is but an inlet to eternal life a departure to be * Phill. 1.23 with Christ when there 's no condemnation to follow after it you may and you should meet it with joy and holy triumph And know that to you it shall not be bare freedome from eternal death but it shall also be the possession of eternal life there 's very much in the privative part of the mercy but when the positive part too is joined with it how high doth it rise ô admire and adore the Grace of God! The least of your sins deserves death the best of your duties doth not deserve life and yet you are freed from that which you so much deserve and shall be put into the possession of that which you so little deserve here 's the riches of the grace of God towards you Sin and Death are the two * Peccatum mors sunt duae partes adaequatae humanae miseriae nam in culpâ poenâ tota miseria hominis consistit Streso comprehensive evils all evil is summ'd up in and under them but you are freed from both what reason have you to rejoice and to admire the Lords boundless goodness ô the damned in hell who are under this death and feel it what would they give to be freed from it You through the merit of Christ and the power of the Spirit are made free from it therefore you should first be very thankeful and then very chearful What great things hath the gracious God done for you he hath delivered you from the Rule of sin whilst you live from the hurt of death when you dye have not you abundant cause of blessing and rejoicing 'T will not be long before this Death will look you in the face and lay its cold hands upon you 't is every minute making its nearer approaches to you by every breath you draw it gets ground upon you well be not troubled at this you know the worst on 't 't is death but not damnation 't is the parting of the Soul from the Body but no parting of the Soul from God 't is but dying temporally that you may live eternally how great is your happiness proportionable to which how great should your thankefulness and holy joy be So much for this Verse ROM 8.3 4. For what the Law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin in the flesh That the Righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit CHAP. IX Of the Laws inability to justify save High and glorious Matter contained in these two Verses Of their Coherence with what went before The difference amongst Expositors about that The General sense and meaning of the Words The various Readings and Explications of them They are divided into Five Parts There 's a Complication in them of the several Causes of the Sinners Justification and Salvation The First Branch of the Text insisted upon What the Law c. Four things observed in it Of its Literal Exposition What is here meant by Law What that was which the Law could not do How 't is said to be weak What the Flesh is by which 't is weakened The whole matter drawn into one Observation Of the Special matter of the Laws impotency as it refers to Justification and Salvation Three Grounds or Demonstrations of its impotency 1. It requires more than what the fal'n Creature can perform 2. It doth not give what the fal'n Creature needs 3. It cannot make reparation for what the fal'n Creature bath done Use 1. To humble us because we have a Nature in us by which Gods own Law is thus weakened where some thing is said against the Power of Nature Use 2. First To vindicate the Honor of the Law notwithstanding the Weakness charg'd upon it Secondly The Laws Obligation not to be cast off because of this Thirdly Nor yet is it to be look'd upon as altogether weak or useless Use 3. To take men off from expecting Righteousness and Life from and by the Law Use 4. To stir up Believers to adore the Love and Mercy of God in sending his Son when the Law was under an utter inability to justifie and save High and glorious things contained in these Verses OUr Apostle here Eagle-like soar's aloft and rises up in his discourse to the most sublime truths of the Gospel These two Verses set things before us so high and glorious as may fill Heaven and Earth Angels and Men with amazement and astonishment Here 's the whole Gospel sum'd up in a few words contracted and brought into a narrow compass here 's in one view Man undone and Man recover'd the depths of the Creatures misery and the heights of Gods Mercy in a short abridgement Here 's Gods sending his Son which surely was the greatest thing that ever he did it being the highest contrivance of his infinite Wisdom and the highest product of his infinite Love Here 's this Son sent in our flesh the first and the great Mystery of the Gospel for it comes in the front of the Gospel-Mysteries 1 Tim. 3.16 Here 's sin condemn'd and the Sinner acquitted the Law represented as impossible for us to keep yet fulfilled for us in a most strange and wonderful manner as Christ hath done and suffered that for us which we were utterly unable to do and suffer our selves O the * Eph. 3.18 bredths lengths depths heights of the Wisdom Mercy Justice Holiness of God! for all these several Attributes in what is here set forth do concur and shine forth in their greatest lustre Who can hear or read these two Verses with due consideration and not be in a divine transport and extasie for the truth is whatever is short of the most raised workings in the Soul is too low for the glorious things here spoken of The Coherence of them with what goes before We must first enquire into their Coherence or Connexion with what goes before They are a further proof or confirmation of the main Proposition laid down in the first
it was with Christ in reference to his Father's sending of him the Will of the Son was as much for the Work as the Will of the Father himself You must not look upon Christ as meerly passive in the Sending for in some respects he sent himself and his coming upon that great errand of mans Redemption was his own act as well as the Fathers As the Father is said to * Joh. 10.36 Sanctifie him and yet he also is said to †Joh. 17.19 sanctifie himself and as the Father is said * Rom. 8.32 to give him and yet he also is said ‖ Gal. 2.20 to give himself So here the Father is said to send him yet he also as he was One in Nature and in Will with the Father may be said to send himself thus * Fortè aliquis rogat ut dicamus etiam à seipso missum esse Filium quia Mariae conceptus partus operatio Trinitatis est Sed inquit aliquis quomodo Pater eum misit si ipse se misit Cui respondeo quaerens ut dicat quomodo eum Pater Sanctificavit si ipse se Sanctificavit utrumque enim Dominus dicit c. Item quaeio quomodo Pater eum tradidit si ipse se tradidit utrumque enim legitur Credo respondebit si probè sapit quia una vâ—luntas est Patris Filii inseparabilis operatio Aug. de Trin. lib. 2. cap. 5. Austine opens it The expression in the Text God sent his Son doth not exclude the Son or the Spirit from the sending or wholly appropriate it to the Father it only notes the Order of the Persons in their working The Father being the first in working therefore the sending of Christ is ascribed to him but there being nothing more in it than so that will not prove any inequality in the Persons or any superiority that One hath over the Other The Schoolmen give some nice and curious distinctions about Christ's being sent by himself and by the Holy Ghost as well as by the first Person but 't is not convenient to perplex the Reader with them this is one Answer for the clearing up of the difficulty and the weakening of the Objection which we have to do with 2. The Learned further distinguish of a twofold inferiority One in respect of Nature and One in respect of Office Condition or Dispensation As to the First Christ neither was nor is in the least inferiour to the Father both having the same Nature and Essence in respect of which he * Phil. 2.6 thought it not robbery to be equal with God As to the Second Christ being considered as Mediator as having assumed flesh put himself into the Sinners stead and undertaken to make Satisfaction to God so without any derogation it may be said of him that he was inferiour to the Father In reference to which it follows in the * Vers 7 8. forementioned place He made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of men and being found in fashion as a man he humbled himself and became obedient unto death even the death of the cross And upon this he saith * Joh. 14.28 See this Text fully opened in Estwicke against Biddle p. 121. c. vid. etiam Epiph adver Haeres Lib. 2. Tom. 2. p. 775 c. Loquatur Filius Hominis Pater major me est loquatur Filius Dei Ego Pater unum sumus Aug. de Temp. Serm. 6. My Father is greater than I He was in Nature every way as great as the Father but he having submitted to be made Man to be a Surety having condescended to the Office and Work of a Redeemer in our Flesh so in respect of oeconomy and dispensation the Father was greater than he And by vertue of his superiority over Christ as considered in this his voluntary exinanition so he sent him and laid his commands upon him and dealt with him as you have heard but * Non ideò arbitrandum est minorem esse Filium quia missus est a Patre nec ideò minorem Spiritum Sanctum quia Pater eum misit Filius Sive enim propter visibilem Creaturam sive potius propter principii authoritatem vel commendationem non propter inequalitatem vel imparilitatem dissimilitudinem substantiae in Scripturis haec posita intelliguntur Non ergo ideò dicitur Pater misisse Filium vel Spiritum Sanctum quia ille esset major illi minores sed maximè propter authoritatem principii commendandam quia in visibili creaturâ non sicut ille apparuit Aug. de Trin. Lib. 4. Cap. 21. Missio importet minorationem in eo qui mittitur secundum quod importat processionem à principio mittente aut secundum imperium aut secundum consilium quia imperâns est major consilians est sapientior Sed in divinis non importat nisi processionem originis quae est secundum equalitatem Aquin. 1. p. Quaest 43. Art 1. resp ad Primum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naz. Orat. 2. de Filio p. 582. yet his natural and essential greatness or equality with the Father was not at all by this impaired or lessened which was the great Truth to be secured against the Adversary Reasons why God sent Christ. The Third thing which I am to speak to is to enquire so far as the Word will warrant into the Grounds and Reasons of Christ's mission wherefore did God send him He who is so Wise that he doth nothing be it never so little or mean but he hath his Reasons for it surely in so great a thing as the sending of his own Son he had very high and weighty reasons upon which he acted And though 't is most certain that he neither had nor could have any Motives ab extra in a way of Merit to move him to this yet 't is as certain that he had great and urgent Grounds for it even such as might become a God in doing such a thing He that in Other things is a * Isa 30.18 God of judgment undoubtedly in this which was his Master-piece he would shew himself to be a God of judgment It will therefore be worthy of a modest enquiry to find out the Reasons which the wise and gracious God went upon in the sending of his Son In the General Some must be sent When I say must I do not mean any simple or absolute necessity as though it was simply and absolutely necessary that God should take some course or imploy some person from heaven for the redeeming and saving the world God forbid that I should assert a thing so utterly false and so highly derogatory from the freeness of the grace of God in what he did I only mean therefore that which we call hypothetical or conditional necessity and so the business stood thus God designed to glorifie and advance
my brethren and say unto them I ascend to my Father and your Father to my God and your God where he plainly makes a difference for he doth not say I ascend to our Father as though He and They had one and the same common interest in this near relation to God as he teaches us to say Our Father because we all stand upon the same foot and bottom of Filiation but he saith I ascend to my Father and your Father thereby intimating that there was a difference betwixt God's being a Father to him and a Father to them And so indeed there is a vast one for he is the Father of Christ by * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cyrill Hieros Nature and by eternal generation but he is the Father of Saints only by Grace by Adoption and Regeneration which also are not eternal but accomplished in time Thus in this comparative notion Christ may be called God's own Son 2. Consider him absolutely and abstractly from all Other Sons so he is God's own proper Son It will be ask'd how or wherein That I may a little insist upon the explication of this sublime Mystery I answer Christ is God's own Son not only as God hath a special interest or propriety in him as Believers are said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Christ's own Joh. 13.1 nor only as Christ is the Son of no other Father but of God as the * Proprius Dei Filius jure optimo dicitur proptereà quod non sit alienus nec cujuspiam alterius c. Slichting Socinians would turn off the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for so the Saints themselves may be called God's own Sons they being Sons as to their spiritual Sonship by and from God the Father only there must be therefore something higher than this intended in this glorious Title of God's own Son What may that be Answ that Christ was and is God's Natural and Essential Son that he was in a peculiar manner begotten of him and from him in his eternal Generation that he did participate of the Fathers own Nature and Essence that he was a Son coequal co-essential co-eternal with God the Father To draw all into as narrow a compass as may be Our Lord Jesus is God's own Son as God the Father did from all eternity in an ineffable manner beget him in his own Divine Essence So that it points to two things to his being eternally begotten to his being begotten in the Divine Essence As to the latter I chuse to express it so because 't is more safe if not more true to say that the Son was begotten in that Essence rather than out of it And Some who endeavour to open these profound Mysteries tell us that here we are not to consider Christ essentially as he is God but Personally as the Divine Essence subsists in him as the Second Person In the First consideration as he was God he had the Divine Essence in and of himself and so he could not be begotten to it for he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God from himself though * Amongst Others see Armin Declarat Sent. p. 100 c. Resp ad Artic. p. 131. Some who yet were no Arrians do not agree to this In the Second notion as he was God personally considered or as he was the Second Person and the Son so he was of the Father and not of himself for though he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God of himself yet he was not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Son of himself The usual language of the Ancients was God of God very God of very God c. and this was very true but then you must take it as spoken of God * Christus non est Filius Essentiae sed Personae non Dei Essentiae sed Dei Patris Genitus enim est non essentiatus ergo non suae Essentiae vel sui Filius Est Filius unius veri Dei vid. Patris non Divinae in Patre Essentiae c. Hoorneb Socin Conf. Lib. 1. ca. 1. p. 36 Cum dicitur quod Filius est à Patre novimus ex ipsis Fidei principiis hoc ita esse explicandum ut Filius sit à Patre quoad Personalitatem nimirum secundum quod est Filius non quoad Deitatem secundum quod est Deus Siquidem cum Deitas Filii sit una illa simplex ipsissima Patris Deitas ab alio esse non possit nam Filius juste 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dicitur Cum idcò in Symbolo Nicaeno de Christo occurrit quod sit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hoc sensu Catholico intelligendum est ut sit Deus de Deo non quoad Deitatem Essentiam sed potius quoad Personalitatem subsistentiam c. Barlow Exercit. 5. p. 107. c. The Son in respect of his Person is of the Father but in respect of his Godhead he is of none The Son of God considered as he is a Son is of the Father God of very God But considered as he is God he is God of himself because the Godhead of the Son is not begotten more than the Godhead of the Father Perkins on Gal. p. 271. See Cheyn Trin-unity p. 134. Personally considered with respect both to the Person begotting and the Person begotten for in the Sacred Persons Essence doth not beget Essence but Person begets Person as 't is * Alting Theol. Probl. Loc. 30. Probl. 32. 34. usually express'd I fear these things may be too high for our weak capacities that they do but darken rather than illustrate the Sonship of Christ yet Divines know not how to speak more plainly concerning these Mysteries Well! I for my part will not venture too far into these great depths that Christ is the Son of God yea thus the Son of God as hath been laid down is evident enough but he that will engage in a curious inquisition into all Particulars resulting from or referring to Christ's Natural and Eternal Sonship will find at last he attempted that which was infinitely too high for him Christ's Natural and Eternal Sonship proved by Scripture Contenting our selves therefore with this more General Explication of it and not launching out too far into Particulars that we may be the more firmly rooted in the belief of this great Article of the Christian Faith viz. that Christ is the natural and eternally begotten Son of God and therefore called his own Son it will be necessary for us to look into the Word of Truth to see what Foundation we have there for this our belief For it would be equally dangerous for us to believe it if the Word doth not affirm it as not to believe it if the Word doth affirm it because we cannot fathom several things in it by the plummet of Reason I shall desire you therefore to weigh the following Scriptures Joh. 7.29 I know him for I am from him and he hath sent me They are
Christ is stiled the only begotten of the Father which Title the Evangelist John often repeats the Other Evangelists speak much of Christ's Manhood and of his Birth as Man but * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Epiphan adv Her lib. 2. tom 2. p. 747. John is altogether taken up with the Godhead of Christ and with his eternal Generation as the Son of God whence Nyssene saith of him that he did indeed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Some think he was from hence call'd John the Divine In reference to which he calls him over and over God's only begotten Son as you see Joh. 1.14.18 Joh. 3.16.18 1 Joh. 4.9 Now how is Christ the only begotten Son of God surely it must be in respect of some extraordinary way and manner of his Sonship peculiar to himself and what can that be but that which I am upon Never was any person * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Damasc Naianz Orat. 2. de Filio Sp. Sancto Pag. 590. puts in another word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so begotten of the Father as he was God hath other Sons begotten of him as some prealledged Scriptures testifie but yet Christ is stiled his only begotten Son because of his special and incommunicable Generation because he is the Son of God by Nature and hath that very Nature and Essence which God the Father hath Take away this speciality of his Sonship and how shall we interpret this exclusive title of Christ the only begotten of God He is not only called God's own Son but also his only Son and nothing can make him to be so as will appear by and by but his being the Natural Son of God and by eternal Generation 'T is observable after the Evangelist had been speaking of the Sonship of Christ Vers 14. and he speaks of this as being of a different kind and order from the former upon which he calls him the only begotten of the Father The old Arrian Hereticks had a pretty evasion for this Christ sayes Eunomius whom Basil and his Brother Nyssen have so profoundly confuted was the only begotten of the Father in as much as he was begotten only of the Father which evasion exactly falls in with that modern Gloss which some Socinians give upon the Text Christ was God's own Son i.e. he was the Son of no other but of God But to this 't is answered there 's a great difference betwixt being begotten only of the Father and being the only begotten of the Father the first makes God to be the only begetter but not Christ to be the only begotten without which this Title of his would signifie nothing For 't is true as to the Saints they are begotten only of the Father but yet 't is not true that they are the only begotten of the Father indeed this belongs not to them at all but only to Christ their Sonship by regeneration and Christ's Sonship by eternal Generation are things of a quite different Nature and Species and it must be so or else he could not truly be stiled the only begotten of the Father The Apostle in this Chapter Vers 32. calls Christ God's own Son He that spared not his own Son c. now the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 imports as much as God's proper or natural Son That 's the fignification of it in other references Luke 6.44 Every tree is known by his own fruit 't is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that fruit which is proper and natural to it so that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is to be taken 1 Cor. 15.38 God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him and to every seed his own body And so Christ is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God 's own Son that is his Son who hath the same Nature and Essence with himself There are three Properties if the two First be not one and the same belonging to Christ in his Sonship which are incommunicable to any other As 1. He is a Son Co-equal with his Father Joh. 5.18 The Jews sought the more to kill him not only because he had broken the Sabbath but said also that God was his Father making himself equal with God The Jews were in the right as to the thing only they erred as to the Person because they would not see that Christ was this Son of God and therefore equal to the Father their Argument was good and their Inference proper and genuine if Christ do claim to be the proper Son of God then he must be equal with God nothing could be more true And he had and must have such a Sonship as will rise up to this therefore his whole discourse in which he is very large Joh. 5. 10 Chapt. tends to the proving of nothing lower than his Natural Sonship and consequently his equality with his Father And if he had been only the Son of God in a lower way why did he not so explain himself why did he suffer the charge of blasphemy upon it nay why did he lose his life upon it Had he been the Son of God only as others are the very telling of that had quieted the people acquitted him from blasphemy and saved his life but he lets them alone to go on in their malice against him because that was the very truth which they pitched upon and which he would have to be known namely that he was so the Son of God as to be equal with God For a further proof of this take that of the Apostle where he speaks it out expresly Phil. 2.6 Who being in the form of God thought it not robbery to be equal with God surely there is more in this being equal with God than what Some particularly * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 est spectari tanquam Deum Grotius As though there were no more in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 than in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dr. Pearson on the Creede p. 246. Grotius are pleas'd to make it to be it notes equality of Nature and Essence not only some external show or appearance or estimation by others The latter Clause must be expounded as 't is joyn'd with the former and then its sense and emphasis will be clear enough Christ being in the form of God existing in the Divine Nature and really participating of that Nature thought it no robbery no bold encroachment upon the honour of God to be equal with God to assume and apply that Nature to himself which he had in truth And which will much strengthen this exposition of the words as that which follows Vers 7 8. speaks Christ's Natural equality with us as he was Man and must be so interpreted so this here speaks Christ's Natural equality with the Father as he was God and must be so interpreted also 2. Christ is a Son Co-essential with the Father He is not only like him but of the same Nature and Essence with him not only under some resemblance of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but under a perfect identity and
Christ now when the time of his humiliation is over and when he appears in all things like himself as the Son of God in his greatest glory The Third Inference that the Work of Redemption was a very great Work 3. Thirdly was Christ God's own Son I infer certainly then the work of Redemption was a very great work for God sent his own Son about it and therefore surely 't was no ordinary or common thing Alwayes the greater the Person is who is imployed in the work the greater is that work 't is thus from the wisdom of a Man much more shall it be thus from the wisdom of a God Kings do not use to send their Sons upon mean and petty services but only upon such as are high and weighty and can it be imagined that ever God would have sent his own Son into the world to redeem Sinners if this had not been a work very high and great in his eye Indeed this makes Redemption to be the greatest work that ever was done by God himself the making of the World was a great thing but God never sent his Son about that that was dispatch'd by a word he did but speak the word and it was done Works of Providence are very great but there 's no sending of a Son about them but when Redemption-work was to come upon the stage in order to that Christ God's own Son must come from heaven and be incarnate and do and die and all was necessary for the accomplishing of that O how great a work was this So much for the First Vse by way of Inference Use 2. For Exhortation 1. Branch of the Exhortation to study Christ as the proper Son of God 2. Secondly was Christ God's own Son let me from hence urge a few things upon you 1. Study Christ much in this relation that you may know him as the proper natural essential Son of God The knowledge of Christ in whatever notion you consider him is very pretious it was so to Paul who * 1 Cor. 2.2 determined not to know any thing save Jesus Christ c. and †Phil. 3.8 who counted all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus but to know him as he stands in this near relation to God as God's own Son O this is precious knowledge indeed Now Sirs you have heard much of him read much of him but do you know him and know him as the eternal only-begotten Son of God This is that Truth upon which all Religion depends in which you have the very heart and spirit of the Gospel upon which the whole stress of your happiness is laid 't is one of the most fundamental Articles of the Christian Faith and yet will you be ignorant of it You all have some general knowledge of it and you all profess to believe it 't is a part of your Creed but do you distinctly and clearly know alwayes allowing for the mysteriousness of the Object and the dimness of your Facultys how Christ is the Son of God how his Sonship was brought about and wherein it lies that he is God's natural Son begotten by him from all eternity in a most mysterious and admirable manner do you understand any thing about this * Cognoscere quando Filius Dei primùm extiterit utrum ex ipsius Patris essentiâ necne genitus fuerit non est necessarium creditu ad salutem Socin Solut. Scrupul resp ad Scrup. 1. So Episcopius Iust Theol. lib. 4. cap. 34. per totum Some tell us that the knowledge and belief of Christ's Sonship according to the particulars wherein it hath been opened not necessary to Salvation I 'le not engage in this Controversie wherein Some do as much affirm as Others deny but this I say it being so momentous a Truth in it self and the Scriptures speaking so much of it and giving so much light about it 't is of great Concern to all who live under Gospel-revelation to endeavour to know as much of it as the height of the thing and the lowness of their capacities will admit of Directions in the studying of Christ as the Son of God And because I would hope that there are Some here whose thoughts are taken up about it and who desire to arrive at a fuller knowledge of it therefore to such I would commend three things by way of Direction 1. In all your enquiries and searchings into Christ's Sonship especially into the Ground and Mode of it viz. eternal Generation be sure you keep within the bounds of sobriety I mean this take heed that in this deep Mystery you * 1 Cor. 4.6 be not wise above what is written that you do not therein consult your own purblind and carnal reason but Scripture-revelation altogether Pray study it but in so doing do not * Quaero abs te quando vel quomodo Filium putas esse generatum mihi enim impossibile est Generationis scire secretum mens deficit vox silet non mea tantum sed Angelorum supra potestates supra Angelos supra Cherubin supra Seraphin supra omnem sensum est c. Tu ergo ori manum admove scrutari non licet superna mysteria Licet scire quod natus sit non licet discutere quomodo natus sit Illud mihi negare non hoc quaerere metus est Ineffabilis enim est illa Generatio Ambros de Fide Cap. 5. Si Christus dâ—xit senescire de die illâ horâ sed solum Patrem quanto minùs possumus nos scire quomodo genitus sit Filius ex Patre Non debere igitur nos crubescere fateri neminem hunc modum nosse sed solum illum qui genuit eum qui genitus est Iren. lib. 2. cap. 48. Quomodo Deus Pater genuerit Filium nolo discutias nec te curiosiùs inseras in profundi hujus arcanum Cyprian in Symbol 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Epiph. adv Haeres lib. 2. tom 2. p. 739. The Mystery of Mysteries which corrupt and wanton Reason derides but prudent Faith admires and adores Cheyn Trin-unity p. 190. pry too far into those secrets which God hath lock'd up from you content your selves with what he hath reveal'd in his Word and stay there 'T is both sinful and also dangerous for poor shallow Creatures to venture too far into these depths where if they once lose their bottom the written Word they drown themselves presently there 's no clue but that to guide us in this labyrinth That Christ is the Son of God is very clear that he is the Son of God by eternal Generation is very clear but will you be inquisitive further to know what this Generation is what can your Reason the Scripture being silent about it say of that O go not too far there Humane Reason consider'd as meerly natural is a very incompetent judge of this divine and sublime mystery a mystery to
may put them together and take in both upon this Person and this Faith the Church of God is built and therefore it shall stand fast for ever so that according to this Exposition which is with great strength defended by our PROTESTANT Divines this Sonship of Christ is the foundation-foundation-truth And therefore no wonder that in all Ages the Zeal of the Church hath been so much engag'd therein for 't is very well known that in its drawing up of Creeds and Summaries of Faith this one Article viz. Christ's being the Coessential Coeternal only begotten Son of God hath ever been put in witness the Nicene Constantinopolitan Athanasian Creeds because this was judged a thing most necessary to be believed And indeed there is not any one branch of the Christian Faith which the Church hath gain'd more out of the fire after much trouble and opposition than this one Nay this was that very Truth for the owning and asserting of which above any other our blessed Lord lost his life as you may plainly see by the * Joh. 19.7 Mark 14.61 c. Evangelical History And I desire that it may yet further be considered that as God himself began and ended with the witness and declaration of Christ's Sonship for as soon as he entred upon his publick Ministry the Father set him out with this witness * Matth. 3.17 This is my beloved Son c. and when he had well nigh finished his work and was going off the stage then the Father renew'd his witness again * Matth. 17.5 This is my beloved Son c So the Devil too he began and ended with the Sonship of Christ for presently after the Father's testimony thereof he took him aside to tempt him and when he had him alone and began the duel with him how did he assault him why * Matth. 4.3 if thou be the Son of God command that these stones be made bread he comes over it again †Vers 6. if thou be the Son of God cast thy self down c If thou be the Son of God why did Satan harp so much upon this what might his design be in laying his temptation thus I answer it must be for one or for all of these Reasons either that he might by the observing of Christ's behaviour in the contest more fully inform himself whether Christ was indeed the Son of God which was the thing he was deadly afraid of knowing that such a person would be the ruine of his kingdom or that he might see whether he could make Christ to doubt of his Sonship after and notwithstanding the plain testimony of his Father or that he might go as far as ever he could to draw him to the doing of what was evil and so if such a thing had been possible null this his neer relation to God surely there was some special cause why Satan pick'd out this and so much insisted upon it Well! here he began these were the very first words which this cursed Spirit uttered when he dared to assault our Saviour wherein he plainly struck at his Sonship it self though cunningly he made his temptations to point to some wicked inferences which he would have had drawn from Christ's relation rather than directly to the truth of the relation it self And as he began with this so he ended with this for 't was he which speaks a prodigious infatuation in him that he should be so forward in the promoting of that which certainly would end in his ruine who stirr'd up Pilate the High Priest the Body of the Jews against Christ and they through his instigation fell upon Christ and took away his life for what for this very cause because he made himself to be as indeed he was the Son of God By all this you see of what great moment and importance this Truth concerning Christ's Sonship is And to add yet one thing further pray look to that grand Seducer and Enemy of Christ and of the Christian Faith I mean Mahomet of whom we reade that he also set himself to his utmost to oppose and decry the Sonship of Christ He was willing to grant Christ to be a great Prophet but by no means to be the very Son of God this particularly and expresly he principled his Followers against in his ridiculous Alcoran and * Constantèr dic illis Deum unum esse necessarium omnibus incorporeum Qui nec genuit nec est generatus nec habet quenquam sibi similem Azoar 122. Alcor in Bibliandri Edit p. 188. Vide Cribrat Alcorani per Nicol. de Cusa lib. 1. c. 10 11 13 14 c. See Dr. Pearson on the Creed p. 272. he gave them in special this Command 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to worship one onely God and to honour Christ as the Word of God but not as the Son of God From all these premises I infer is this such a foundation-Truth and shall not we firmly assent to it hath the Church with such zeal contended for it and shall we yet doubt of it do Heathens Jews Turks so much oppose it and shall not we Christians who have and own Scripture-revelation steadily believe it hath Christ sealed it with his blood and yet shall we stagger about it have we such attestations from God and Man and yet shall there be questionings and reasonings in our Souls against it 1 Joh. 5.9 10. If we receive the witness of men the witness of God is greater for this is the witness of God which he hath testified of his Son He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself he that believeth not God hath made him a liar because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son But Some will say to what purpose is all this who question 's whether Christ be God's own Son I answer O that there was not too much need of this advice many poor Souls think they do fully and firmly believe it and yet 't is to be feared they do not and the truth is that weakness which is in our Faith of adherence proceeds in part from that weakness that is in our Faith of assent much of that dejectedness which is upon our Spirits under trouble and of those inward sinkings under the sense of guilt comes from one of these two Causes either we do not revive upon our thoughts or else we do not fixedly believe in our hearts that Christ is God's Son and his own Son And as to loose and common Professors if ever Arrianism Old or New should get upon the throne which God forbid I fear the belief of Christ's Godhead and eternal Sonship would soon be laid aside O therefore I would be very earnest with you to get your faith yet more and more strengthned and confirmed about it But though this be very good yet 't is not enough besides the believing of Christ to be the Son of God there must be believing on Christ as the Son
hard as that the power of the Son of God cannot effect it and what can be so high as that the Obedience of the Son of God cannot merit it Had Christ been only the Son of Man then indeed Faith could not have bore up with such confidence but he being the Son of God also and having the Nature Essence Attributes of God how may Faith triumph as to the efficacy and meritoriousness of his obedience 'T was the blood of God which he shed Acts 20.28 O what a greatness and * Superest ut poena illa Fidejussoris nostri pretio dignitate atque merito foret infinita id quod allter fieri non potuit quam si Persona patiens foret ipsa infinita Nam ut Pèccati c. Vid. Thes Salmur de Christo Mediat parte 1. th 13. p. 246. infiniteness of Merit must needs result from the greatness and infiniteness of such a Person Heb. 9.13 14. If the blood of Bulls and of Goats and the ashes of an Heifer sprinkling the unclean sanctifieth to the purifying of the Flesh How much more shall the blood of Christ who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God purge your Conscience from dead works to serve the Living God 4. You may go boldly to the throne of Grace upon all occasions For you have God's own Son to lead you thither and to make way for you and not only so but this own Son improves all his interest in and with the Father for your good why are you afraid to go to God Heb. 4.14 16. Seeing then that we have a great High Priest that is passed into the heavens Jesus the Son of God c. let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of Grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need 5. You need not in the least question the prevalency of Christ's intercession Doth Christ intercede and shall he not prevail will not the Father hear such a Son Suppose he may deny you which he will not yet surely he will not deny his own and onely Son Christ upon this relation may ask any thing and he shall have it mark the connexion Psal 2.7 I will declare the decree the Lord hath said unto me thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee what follows now upon this why Vers 8. Ask of me and I shall give thee the Heathen for thine inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession God thinks nothing too much for this Son when he asks it of him and 't is the same when he asks for you as when he asks for himself therefore fear not but that your Prayers shall be graciously answered Christ himself interceding for you when the Kings own Son carrys the Petition doubtless it shall be granted 6. This is the Person to whom you are mystically united and therefore his Glory and Greatness reflects a Glory and Greatness upon you You are in Christ not only as he is the Son of Man but as he is the Son of God also for the Vnion is terminated not in this or that Nature but in the whole Person the Apostle therefore takes special notice of this 1 Joh. 5.20 We know that the Son of God is come and hath given us an understanding that we may know him that is true and we are in him that is true even in his Son Jesus Christ O to be in this Son there 's the glory and safety of a believer I have done with this high and most Evangelical Truth The Lord Jesus is God's own Son upon which I have been somewhat large partly because of the excellency of the Argument it self and partly because of the great opposition made against it 2 Joh. 3. Grace be with you mercy and peace from God the Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ the Son of the Father in truth and love ROM 8.3 c. In the likeness of sinful Flesh CHAP. XII Of Christ's Incarnation and abasement in Flesh A Fourth General in the Words handled Why the Apostle is so express in the further adding of these Words to the former Five things laid down for the explication of them Flesh not taken here in the same sense with Flesh in what went before A double Synecdoche in the word Flesh Christ did not bring Flesh from Heaven with him but assum'd it here on Earth His sending in Flesh was not his taking a meer humane shape c. Likeness to be joyn'd not with Flesh but with sinful Flesh Two Propositions rais'd from the Words Of the First that Christ was sent in Flesh What his sending in Flesh imports this opened more strictly and more largely Of Marcion and Others who denied the verity of Christ's Incarnation and Body That proved as to both as also the verity of his whole Manhood Of his having a true Soul Of his submitting to the common adjuncts and infirmities of Flesh How the Humane Nature in Christ and in us differ His Incarnation not impossible not incredible The Reasons of it 1. That the Old-Testament Prophecies Promises Types might thereby receive their accomplishment 2. That Christ might be qualified for his Office as Mediator and the work of Redemption 3. Because it was the fittest and the best way in order to the redeeming of man Seven Propositions laid down for the due stating and opening of Christ's Incarnation As 1. That Christ who before was the eternal Son of God and had a praevious existence was made Flesh this made good against the SOCINIANS 2. That the Second Person only was incarnate 3. That this was not done till the fulness of time 4. That 't was not the divine Essence absolutely considered which assumed Flesh but that Essence considered as subsisting in the Second Person 5. That the Nature assuming was the Divine Nature 6. That the Humane Nature was so assum'd as to subsist in the Divine and that both of these Natures make but one Person where the Hypostatical Union is opened and prov'd 7. 'T is probable that if Adam had not fallen Christ had not been sent in the Flesh Of the Second Proposition That Christ was sent in the likeness yet but in the likeness of sinful Flesh Of the Sanctity of Christ's Humane Nature The Grounds thereof Use 1. To inform 1. Of the excellency of the Gospel and of the Christian Religion As also 2. Of the excellency of Christ's Flesh or Manhood Use 2. Wherein several Duty 's are urged upon Christians as namely 1. To give a full and firm assent to the Truth of Christ's Incarnation and also firmly to adhere to Christ as having assumed our Flesh where something is spoken against those who make little of a Christ in Flesh but are all for a Christ within 2. To be much in the study and contemplation of Christ incarnate 3. To adore the Mystery it self and also the Father and the Son in the Mystery 4. To endeavour after the powerful influence of it
‖ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 est ipsa Caro etiamsi non cum peccato c. Missus ergo Filius Dei 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. in carne non peccatrice eâdem tamen quae in nobis peccârat five pollutâ non in ipso sed in nobis Naturam Peccati h.e. Peocatorum Dei Filius suscepit puram quidem sed ut nostram quae peccârat expiaret Cum notissimo Hebraismo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 res ipsa dicatur ut cum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ipse Homo dicitur non video cur non 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vera sit â—aro cum peccati non ab eo dicatur qui assumsit atque hoc ipso expiavit sed ab eo qui peccando corrupit Heins Expositors the more to weaken the Objection of the Adversaries as grounded upon this Text tell us that the likeness here of sinful Flesh is the sameness of sinful Flesh that Christ took that very Flesh which was and is sinful not that it was so in him but that it is so in us that he assum'd that very Flesh which in man is defil'd by sin yet not as defiled but as true Flesh As when 't is said concerning him that he was in the * Phil. 2.6 7 8. form of God in the form of a Servant in the likeness and fashion of man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 't is the same word with that in the Text the meaning is that Christ was truly God truly a Servant truly Man and as 't is said concerning Adam * Gen. 5.3 he begat a Son in his own likeness that is he begat a Son who was as truly a man and as truly a Sinner as himself so Christ was sent in the likeness c. viz. in just such Flesh or in the very self same Flesh which man hath made in himself sinful and therefore passible and mortal Now though I cannot deny the truth of this Exposition as thus stated nor that it may very well be grounded upon parallel places yet because to some at the first hearing it may seem somewhat harsh I rather incline to that which was laid down before in the opening of the Words 't was the same flesh in Christ and in us in its Physical consideration but it being morally considered it was but the likeness of sinful Flesh But to come to that which I propounded let us consider Flesh in its strict acceptation as it relates to the fleshly and bodily part so I 'le lay down two things about it 1. That Christ was indeed sent in flesh was really incarnate and did verily take flesh upon him And what one thing is there in the whole Gospel wherein 't is plain and positive if it be not so in this Joh. 1.14 And the Word was made Flesh 1 Tim. 3.16 Without controversie great is the mystery of Godliness God manifested in the flesh Heb. 2.14 16. Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood he also himself likewise took part of the same that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death that is the Devil For verily he took not on him the Nature of Angels but he took on him the seed of Abraham Rom. 1.3 Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord who was made of the seed of David according to the flesh Rom. 9.5 Whose are the Fathers and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came who is over all God blessed for ever Amen Hence he 's said to be made of a woman Gal. 4.4 many such * See the strength of these with other Texts drawn forth and vindicated against Objections by Mr. Tombes in a little Treatise called Emmannel or God-man Sect. 15 16 c. to the end of the Book places might be produced to prove that Christ really assumed Flesh but these may suffice Christ's Flesh was organiz'd And this Flesh wherein Christ was sent was organiz'd and form'd into a perfect body the Apostle doth not only call it his Flesh but the body of his flesh Col. 1.22 In the body of his flesh through death c. Heb. 10.5 Wherefore when he cometh into the world he saith Sacrifice and offering thou wouldst not but a Body hast thou prepared me I Pet. 1 24. Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree c. Our Saviour did not assume a confus'd indigested and unshapen mass or lump of flesh that was not his incarnation but he assumed Flesh cast into the very mould and form of our bodies having the same several parts members lineaments the same proportion which they have 2. I adde not as a distinct Head from the former but only that I may more distinctly speak to it then as yet I have done Of the Verity of Christ's Body that as Christ was indeed sent in Flesh so the flesh in which he was sent was Flesh indeed He saith * Joh. 6.55 My flesh is meat indeed and I say his Flesh was flesh indeed as true real proper very flesh as that is which any of us carry about with us 't was as was said before but the likeness of sinful flesh but 't was the reality of physical or substantial Flesh * Vide Aquin. 3. p. Qu. 5. Art 1. Christ's body was no Spectrum or Phantasm no putative body as if it had no being but what was in appearance and from imagination but as real as solid a body as ever any was therefore the Apostle in the * Col. 1.22 fore-cited place calls it a body of Flesh a body to shew the organization of it and a body of flesh to shew the reality of it in opposition to all aerial and imaginary bodies It had all the essential properties of a true body such as are organicalness extension local presence confinement circumscription penetrability visibility palpability and the like Luke 24.39 * Quomodo hanc vocem interpretaris Marcion c. Ecce fallit decipit c. Ergo jam Christum non de coelo deferre debueras sed de aliquo circulatoriò caetu nec salutis Pontificem sed spectaculi artificem c. Tertull. de Carne Christi p. 362. Behold my hands and my feet that it is I my self handle me and see for a Spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see me have 1 Joh. 1.1 That which was from the beginning which we have heard which we have seen with our eyes which we have looked upon and our hands have handled of the word of life c. He had also those natural †Esuriit sub Diabolo sitiit sub Samaritide lacrymatus est supra Lazarum trepidavit ad mortem sanguinem fudit postremò haec sunt opinor signa coelestia Idem ibid. p. 367. affections passions infirmities which are proper to a body as hunger Matth. 4.2 When he had fasted forty dayes and forty nights he was afterwards an hungred thirst Joh. 4.7 Joh. 19.28 I thirst Sleep Matth.
some things as 't is plain he was for he knew not the * Vide Najanz Orat. 36. p. 588. precise time of the day of judgment Mark 13.32 as he was God he knew all things so his Vnderstanding was infinite he must therefore have some other Vnderstanding which was but finite in reference to which there might be something which he did not know He also had an humane Will distinct from his Divine Will for what could that Will be which he did submit and subordinate to the Will of his Father but this Luk. 22.42 Nevertheless not my Will but thine be don Then for those Affections which are proper to the Soul 't is clear Christ had them as namely Anger Mar. 3.5 Mar. 10.14 Love Mat. 10.21 Sorrow Mat. 26.38 Luk. 19.41 Fear Heb. 5.7 Joy Luk. 10 21. Joh. 11.15 Pity Mat. 9.36 Mat. 13.32 Now where these three things are most certainly there is a true and real Soul Yet here also our blessed Lord and Saviour is assaulted he hath two Natures which make up his Person his Deity and his Humanity but both of them by several persons are taken away as you heard but now and there are two Essential parts which make up one of his Natures his Manhood viz. Soul and Body but both of these too by several persons are taken away also Marcion divests him of a Body and * See Epiphan vol. 1. p. 743 771. Apollinaris of a Soul the Arrians also are charged with this Heresie these held that Christ had no Soul but that the ‖ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Theodor. lib. 5 contra Haeres cap. 11. Deity was to him instead of a Soul and supply'd the office thereof that what the Soul is to us and doth in our bodies all that the Divine Nature was to Christ and did in his Body O what light can be clear enough for their Conviction and guidance in the way of truth whom God hath given up to †2 Thes 2.11 strong delusions that they should believe lies Are not the Scriptures clear enough in this matter that Christ had a real Soul what was the subject of his inexpressible sorrow and agonies in the Garden but his Soul Matth. 26.38 My Soul is exceeding sorrowful even unto death c. Joh. 12.27 Now is my Soul troubled and what shall I say what did he in special recommend to God when he was breathing out his last gasp but his Soul Luk. 23.46 When Jesus had cryed with a loud voice he said Father into thy hands I commend my Spirit and having said thus he gave up the Ghost what was the part affected in his sore desertion when he cry'd out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me surely his Body could not be the immediate subject of a punishment purely spiritual no that must terminate in his spiritual part the Soul By all this it appears then that Christ was as truly God so also truly Man he having a true Body and a true Soul Yet a little further that I may take in the whole truth Of Christ's submitting to the common Adjuncts c. of the Humane Nature and leave out nothing which may tend to the heightning of Christ's incomparable Love and condescension to Sinners he was not barely sent in Flesh so far as the verity of the Humane Nature is concern'd in his assuming the Essential parts thereof but he also submitted to the common accidents adjuncts infirmities miseries calamities which are incident to that Nature He lay so many Weeks and Months in the Virgins womb received nourishment and growth in the ordinary way was brought forth and bred up just as common Infants are ' bating some special respects shown to him to discover the greatness of his Person had his life sustain'd by common food as ours is was hungry thirsty weary poor reproached tempted deserted c. liv'd an afflicted life then dy'd a miserable death was a * Isal 53.3 man of sorrows and acquainted with grief †Phil. 2.7 made himself of no reputation took upon him the form of a Servant was made in the likeness of man not only in the taking of their Nature but also in submitting to those abasements and miseries which now that Nature is lyable unto his whole life was a life of sufferings wherein as there was enough in his Holiness * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Justin Martyr Expos Fidei Miracles to shew him to be God so there was also enough in his meanness poverty sufferings to shew him to be Man In a word he took all our infirmities upon him take it with a double restriction 1. To all our †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Damascen de Orthod Fid. l. 3. c. 20. sinless infirmities such as are culpable and carry sin in them they must be excepted for though he was made like to us in all things yet without sin Heb. 4.15 2. To all our Natural infirmities as to personal infirmities such as are proper to this and that Person as blindness deafness lameness c. these Christ did not put himself under for he did not assume this or that Person but the Nature in common and therefore was not lyable to the particular infirmities of Individuums How the Humane Nature in Christ and in us differs but only to those which properly belonged to the common Nature I would carry this a little higher though I have said so much concerning the reality and sameness of Christ's Humane Nature with ours yet you are not in all respects to equalize that Nature as 't is in him and as 't is in us for Substance and Essence 't is one and the same in both yet in other considerations there 's a great disparity for 1. The Humane Nature is solely and singly in us in Christ 't is conjunctly with the Divine 2. We have it in the way of common and ordinary generation Christ had it in a special and extraordinary way 3. 'T is tainted and defil'd in us in Christ 't is perfectly pure and holy 4. In us it hath its proper subsistence in Christ it subsists only in his Godhead Thus I have shewn what this sending of Christ in the Flesh is and what it imports viz. the truth of his Incarnation of his Body and his assumption of the whole entire and perfect Nature of Man and also as the several Heads fell in my way I have out of the Word given you the proof of them I say out of the Word for these Mysteries are only to be known and believed upon the light and authority thereof if it asserts them that certainly must be sufficient to command the belief of Christians who profess in all things to make the Scriptures to be the Rule of their Faith And as to the credibility of Christ's incarnation from rational Considerations in subserviency to and grounded upon Gospel-revelation sundry * Tertull. de Carne Christi Deo nihil impossibile nisi quod non vult
alicui persuaderi potuisse valdè mirum esset nisi homines vivi capti dementati essent à Sathanâ c. Dogma tremendum Id. Hom. 8. in 1. cap. Joh. p. 87. Smalcius a very Fable yea Dogma in Christianâ religione ferè monstrosissimum with many other such vile expressions which I either dread or disdain to mention only there 's ‖ Credimus etiamsi non semel atque iterum sed satis crebrò apertissimè scriptum extaret Deum esse hominem factum multo satius esse quia haec res sit absurda fánae rationi planè contraria in Deum blasphema modum aliquem dicendi comminisci quo ista de Deo dici possint quam ista simplicitèr ita ut verba sonant intelligere c. Smalcius Homil 8. in Joh. p. 89. one from this last named Author which out-strips all the rest 't is this We believe saith he that though it should be written not once or twice but very often and that too very plainly that God was made man yet it would be much better this being a thing very absurd contrary to sound reason blasphemous against God to find out some other sense of it which might suite with the Nature of God rather than to take it literally according to what such words do hold forth thereby to expose Religion to scorn O the boldness and even blasphemy of the man 't is a vain thing to argue with these persons either in this or any other Point from the holy Scriptures for let God say there what he will if their Reason as the Supream Judge of what is to be believ'd or not to be believed doth not like it the Divine Revelation let it be never so plain signifies nothing Lord whither will the pride of Reason and the wickedness of the Heart carry men who are given up to themselves But if Scripture-revelation must be thus subjected to humane Reason let 's bid adieu to all Religion saving what is Natural I thought this had been the highest Reason in the world that Creatures should believe what God reveals because he reveals it though they with their poor dimme and shallow reason cannot comprehend what is so revealed by him but I am faln upon another Controversie I hope I speak to those who bear a greater reverence to the sacred Scriptures and surely if these may be believed what can be more clear than this that Christ is not only man but that he who was before the Son of God was afterwards in time made the Son of man Mark the Text God sent his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh where Christ is suppos'd antecedently to be God's Son then as such he was sent and then incarnate So Gal. 4.4 When the fulness of the time was come God sent forth his Son made of a woman made under the Law Joh. 1.14 The Word was made Flesh 't is not only he that is Christ the Personal Word was Flesh but he was made Flesh so the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is rendred * Joh. 1.12 1 Cor. 1.30 Rom. 7.13 Gal. 3.13 Rom. 1.3 Gal. 4.4 else-where and the subject matter determines it to be so rendred here also But how was Christ made Flesh was this spoken of him only in respect of his mean afflicted calamitous state and condition here was that all that was meant by it surely no! that was so far from being all that the Evangelist had it not at all in his eye when he uttered these words for he adds and we saw his Glory the Glory as of the only begotten of the Father he joyns his being made flesh with the glory of his Person not with the meanness of his condition and further the Substance must antecede the Adjunct the truth of the humane Nature must go before the abasement and miseries of it So that when 't is said the Word was made Flesh it can carry no other sense than that Christ took the very Nature and Substance of man upon him I say Christ for 't is very evident where men do not wilfully shut their eyes that he is all along set forth by the Word he being the personal essential and substantial Word now observe he was the Word before he assum'd Flesh and he who was so praeexisting he assumed Flesh for 't is the Word was made Flesh plainly implying the antecedency of his being in that notion to this his incarnation SOCINVS is shrewdly pinch'd with this Text insomuch that he is fain to fall upon every word in it with his usual Criticisms and forc'd senses thereby to evade and elude the strength of it but all his attempts are in vain So also for the Word is not sparing in the revealing of this Truth though our * Socin de Nat. Christi p. 7. Smalc Hom. 8. in 1. c. Joh. p. 88. Adversaries are pleas'd to assert the contrary Heb. 2.14 16. Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood he also himself likewise took part of the same that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death that is the Devil For verily he took not on him the Nature of Angels but he took on him the seed of Abraham here the Apostle lays it down over and over by taking he took part of the same he took not on him the nature of Angels but he took on him the seed of Abraham thereby to note Christ's assuming of the humane Nature and joyning of it to that other Nature which he had before 1 Tim. 3.16 Without controversie great is the mystery of Godliness God was manifest in the flesh c. a Person here must be spoken of and the Lord Jesus must be that Person for the following matter justified in the Spirit seen of Angels preached unto the Gentiles believed on in the world received up into Glory is only applicable to a Person and to Christ as that Person by the way * Erasmus Grotius c. they who alter the reading of the Text putting out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and putting in ὠand so carrying it from the Person of Christ to the Gospel have done no good service either to the truth in general or in special to that particular Truth which I am upon now 't is not here said only that Christ was manifested in the Flesh but God was c. to shew that he who was incarnate for that 's the manifestation in the flesh here intended was first God or God before and then he was incarnate 'T is a mighty Scripture that in Phil. 2.6 7. Who being in the form of God thought it not robbery to be equal with God here 's Christ's praeexisting in the Nature of the Godhead and then after this comes his Manhood But made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of men 'T would be a long work to draw out the full strength of these and
hurt it had done before and remov'd that in it which was of so hurtful a nature What was that I answer its guilt O that 's an hurtful thing indeed it binds the Sinner over to answer at God's tribunal for all the evils commited by him exposes him to the Wrath of the great God renders him lyable to a Sentence of eternal death but now it pleased God for sin to condemn sin i.e. by Christ's being a Sacrifice to expiate this guilt of sin which in it self was so pernicious and hurtful so that believers should not lie under it or eternally suffer for it Now this is that explication of the Word which is most commonly given by the best * Damnatio peccati nos in juslitiam asseruit quia deleto reatu absolvimur uti nos Deus justos reputet Calvin with many Others Beza dissents Non mihi facilè persuaserim de peccatorum expiatione hic agi est enim pars illa jam pridem ab Apostolo explicata adeo ut à v. 12. c. 5. aliud Argumentum sit exorsus Expositors and I prefer it before the former upon these Reasons 1 As to the abolishing of Sins power that the Apostle had spoken to already in the foregoing verse the Law of the Spirit c. and he instances in the Spirit there as he doth in the Son here Now according to what was said before as 't is the proper act of the Spirit to free from Sins power therefore that must be understood there so 't is the proper act of the Son to free from Sins guilt therefore that must be understood here 2 The Word here used 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all along in Scripture points to the guilt of sin and the punishment inflicted thereupon never to its power or dominion for the proof of which several Texts might be cited if it was deny'd 'T is usually apply'd to the Sinner here only if I well â—emember 't is apply'd to sin it self and in this different application it carries a different sense for as 't is elsewhere apply'd to the Sinner it notes the imputation of guilt to him and the passing of a condemnatory sentence upon him for that guilt but as 't is here apply'd to sin it notes the expiation or abolition of its guilt yet this doth not wealien what I have said because in both references though in a different sense it still points to guilt and punishment which is enough for my purpose 3 The Apostle speaks of that abolition of Sin which was effected in Christ's Flesh therefore it must be understood of the abolition of its guilt rather than of its power that being the thing which was most directly and immediately done in Christ's Flesh 4 'T is that condemning sin which is for sin i.e. by a Sacrifice for sin wherefore it must be taken in that sense which best suits with what was done in and by Sacrifices Now they abolished sin not so much by turning men from it or by lessening its power though that might follow as a Consequent upon them as by the * This proved in Essenius de Satisf Christi c. 8. p. 422. Turretin de Sat. c. part 6. p. 202 Dr. O. against B. P. 574. expiating of its guilt this was the proper and primary effect of the Leâ—itical Sacrifices in allusion to which when Christ the true Sacrifice is said to purge away sin to purifie c. you are to understand those expressions as respecting the expiation of Sins guilt as I shall have occasion further to prove in what will follow For these reasons though I would not exclude wholly the former sense yet I prefer this before it In the punishing of it in Christ's person 3. There is a * See Pareus in loc in Dub. 3. p. 779. Condemnare perpetuò significat Apostolo poenas peccati irrogare Damnare pec catum est illud dignum poenà judicare paenasque pro eo exigere Contzen his sense of the Word justified by Calov Socin profl p. 433. third interpretation put upon the Word namely God's condemning sin was his punishing of it in Christ's person or his exacting of Christ that punishment which was due to the Sinner himself For this Condemning must be joyn'd with that which follows in the Flesh and expounded by that and then the meaning will be this For sin God condemned sin in the flesh that is he fell upon sin severely punish'd it inflicted the curse and punishment due to us for it in and upon the Person of his own Son he †Isa 53.6 laid the iniquities of Believers upon Christ and then punished them in him so that he bore that penalty which Sinners themselves should have undergone God did of him in our Nature paenas peccato debitas exigere or maledictionem nobis debitam irrogare Man having fin'd either he himself or his surety must suffer the punishment thereby deserv'd God will have sin punnish'd somewhere therefore Christ having put himself into the Sinners stead he must bear the punishment due to the Sinner for though God will so far ‖ See of God's relaxing his Law and the threatning thereof Mr. Baxter Aphor. p. 36. c. Mr. Burgesse of Justif p. 84. relax his Law as to admit of a substitution or commutation as to the Person suffering yet he will have its penalty inflicted either upon the proper Offender himself or upon the Saviour who was willing to interpose for the Offender so as to suffer what he should have suffered and God accordingly dealing withhim and proceeding against him in the laying of the punishment due for Sin upon him this was his condemning Sin in the flesh of Christ I am not now to prove the truth of the thing of that hereafter at present I 'me only shewing how 't is held forth in the Word which I am opening so much for the first thing what this condemning of Sin is How Sin is said to be condem'd for Sin 2. The Second thing that needs explaination is the condemning sin for sin what may our Apostle mean by this for sin * Contra duas Pelagian Ep. l. 3. c. 6. Austine gives a threefold sense of it 1. For sin that is by that flesh which look'd like to sinful flesh which therefore might be called sin since as he saith the resemblances of things do usually pass under the names of the things which they resemble by that flesh sin was condemn'd 2. For Sin he makes to be as much as by a Sacrifice for Sin 3. He expounds it of the Sin of the Jews not as heightning it in which sense all the Greek Expositors take it but as pointing to the effect of it by that sin of theirs in crucifying Christ eventually Sin was condemn'd or expiated But these things must be further enquired into The double Reading of Sin and for Sin both opened 'T is in our Translation exactly as 't is in the Original equally concise in both and
as the One is to be filled up so is the Other also The Preposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying of or for accordingly 't is rendred both wayes Some reading it of Sin as the Old Version Anselme the Greek Interpreters generally c. they making the Words to run thus Of Sin God condemned Sin Parallel to which 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is elsewhere so rendred as Joh. 8.46 Which of you convinceth me of sin Joh. 16.8 9. He will convince the world of sin c. Of sin because they believe not on me in all 't is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 just as it is in the Text They who follow this Reading make the sense of the Words to be this God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh in that flesh of his Son as suffering and dying he condemned sin of sin in as much as by that strange and wonderfull course he made it to appear to the world that sin was full of sin highly guilty and criminal * Rom. 7.13 exceeding sinful as the Apostle speaks upon another account Now though I shall not follow this Exposition yet it containing nothing in at but what is true for the matter of it and it being given by some Authors of great repute I will so far insist upon it as to give a double illustration of it 1. As 't is applicable to Sin in the general Take the whole body of Sin or Sin in its utmost extent 't was all condemn'd of sin in Christ's flesh as first assum'd and then crucify'd how why by that it was prov'd and judg'd to be a thing out of measure evil and faulty thereby God let the world see what sin is what an excess of poyson and malignity there is in its nature Did he send his own Son to be incarnate yea to appear in the likeness of sinful Flesh so to be abased suffer and die and was Sin the meritorious Cause of all this was all this done and suffered for the making of satisfaction for the mischiefs and injuries which Sin had been guilty of O what a condemnation was here of Sin Never was there such a demonstration of Sins Evil what an heinous and capital Offender it is as in Christ's being made Man and dying upon the Cross the strangeness of the remedy shows the malignity of the disease the high terms of satisfaction the greatness of the crime God's severity laid upon the Flesh of his own Son in such unparallell'd sufferings made it apparent to the world that sin is a quite other thing than what men generally take it to be had it not been evil desperately evil God had never dealt with Christ as he did therefore in his flesh sin was condemned of sin 2. This may more particularly be apply'd to that sin of killing and murdering the Lord Jesus God did not only condemn sin of sin in the gross but in special that sin which was committed against and upon the Flesh of Christ in the crucifixion of him here 't was the Sin of Sin here Sin was sinful indeed That it should so boldly so injuriously so wickedly fasten upon a Person so near and dear to God so inoffensive and innocent so holy and gracious what an aggregation of Sins and what an aggravation of Sins guilt was there in this Sin never was more sin than in this act here 't was in its highest stature and fullest dimensions this was its master-piece the vilest thing that ever it did all its other crimes were but dwarfish things in comparison of this gigantick and over-grown crime Well! according to its acting and carriage herein so God judg'd it to be very guilty and sinful and accordingly pass'd Sentence upon it And as to those that had an hand in this horrid fact whether Satan to whom some (a) Damnavit peccatum i. e. Satanam de peccato quòd nempe Christum innocentem in Cruce interfeciset Ambros So also Hilarius in Psal 67. apply the Words or the Jews O 't was in all sin full of sin their offence was superlatively great in doing what they did to the flesh of God's own Son Sin in this act did rise exceeding high Now the (b) Vide Chrysost in loc very largely insisting upon this Greek Expositors are very large upon this notion of sin God condemned sin c. that is say they God judged the sin of the Jews according to what it was in its own nature to be very (c) c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Oecum great it or rather they were guilty of a most unparallell'd offence (d) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Theodoret. high injustice prodigious cruelty inexpressible ingratitude strange impudency upon their crucifying of the Holy Jesus the Lord of Glory And in the pursuance of this Explication these Expositors bring in Sin as a Person as a person arraign'd by God for this particular crime after tryal and process sentenc'd to be highly guilty and accordingly to be dealt with And they also insist upon God's way and method in his dealing with Sin which was not in the way of Power but of Justice he did not down-right subdue it by plain force but he condemn'd it after the hearing of that plea it could make for it self as also upon God's order (e) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost first he condemn'd it and then he punish'd it This Interpretation some (f) Haec Chrysostomi Expositio convenientissima inter omnes accommodatissima videtur Tolet. Haec Graecorum Expositio ita placet ut eam caeteris anteponâ—ndam cum Toleto censeam Estius Vid. Alap Catharin c. latter Writers do fall in with and much applaud Bneer himself at first was taken with it but aftâ—wards he altered his thoughts (g) Haec Expositio nihil aliud est quam subtilis argutia Beza Beza passes a severe censure upon it The truth is the Apostle in the Words seems to look at another thing this was not the condemnation of Sin which he had mainly in his eye viz. the heightening or aggravating or proving of its guilt and then passing sentence upon it according to that no but there was another condemnation which he drove at viz. the abolition and expiation of its guilt God so condemned sin as that it might never condemn the Sinner that 's the Apostles proper and principal scope as I humbly conceive (h) In loco prius citato Austine though he reades it too de peccato condemnavit c. yet he opens it in a different sense he making this of sin to be as much as by sin and so he thus glosses upon it By the sin of the Jews in their putting of Christ to death God abolished and took out of the way all the sin of all the Elect he so over-ruled the matter that even by sin sin was destroy'd by the greatest sin that ever was committed sin it self was condemned had not the blood of Christ been spilt though that in
we should have undergone vouchsafed to dye that we might not dye bare himself in his Soul and body as our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the punishment due to us here was substitution far above what was in the Law-sacrifices But this * De Servat p. 2. c. 4. passim In Praelect c. 18. with him concur Crellius Smalcius c. and all of that party SOCINVS and his Followers cannot indure to hear of O they rally all their force unite all their strength set themselves with all their might to oppose and beat down this great Truth there are but few of the Evangelical Mysteries which these pernicious Gospel-destroyers do not assault some way or other but as to that which is now before us Christ's suffering dying satisfying in our stead the summ of Gospel-revelation the great Article of the Christian Faith the main prop and foundation of the believers Hope this they make their fiercest assaults upon whatever stands if they may have their will this shall not But alas poor men when they have done their worst it will stand firm upon its sure basis as an eternal unmoveable Truth 't is so established in the Word and so rooted in the hearts of Christians that in spite of the most subtile and fierce oppositions of all gain-sayers it shall abide for ever Well! however let us see what ground we have for our belief of it and surely upon enquiry it will appear we have enough and enough If the Gospel be not clear in this 't is clear in nothing and blessed be the Lord who in a point of such vast importance to Souls hath given the world a revelation of it so plain and full Substitution in the case of the old Sacrifices is not so evidently held forth in the Law but substitution with respect to Christ and his Sacrifice is more evidently held forth in the Gospel Rom. 5.6 For when we were yet without strength in due time Christ died for the ungodly Vers 8. But God commendeth his love towards us in that while we were yet Sinners Christ died for us 1 Pet. 3.18 For Christ also hath once suffered for sins the just for the unjust 1 Pet. 4.1 Forasmuh then as Christ hath suffered for us in the Flesh c. 1 Pet. 2.21 because Christ also suffered for us c. Joh. 10.15 I lay down my life for the sheep Joh. 11.50 Nor consider that it is expedient for us that one man should die for the people and that the whole nation perish not Heb. 2.9 That he by the grace of God should taste death for every man 2 Cor. 5.14 15. if one died for all then were all dead And that he died for all that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves but unto him which died for them and rose again In all these places the Preposition * Of this and the other Prepositions Grot. de Sat. c. 10. p. 3. c. 9. p. 115. Hoorneb p. 566 567 568. Calor p. 421. c. et p. 453. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is used which though not alwayes yet most frequently notes substitution the doing or suffering of something by one in the stead and place of others see Rom. 9.3 2 Cor. 5.20 and so 't is all along here to be taken where it being used of Persons the nature of the matter spoken of the use of the word in parallel Texts as also in Greek Authors gives this sense the preference before any other But suppose this may be eluded the other Preposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 proves the thing undeniably Matth. 20.28 Even as the Son of Man came not to be ministred unto but to minister and to give his life a ransom for many 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Tim. 2.6 Who gave himself a ransom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for all Christ did not barely deliver poor captive-Souls but he delivered them in the way of a ransom which ransom he paid down for them in their stead so as that what they themselves should have paid that he was pleas'd to pay for them This is and must be the sense and import of the word for every one knows that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Composition out of that I know it hath other senses see Heb. 12.2 1 Cor. 11.15 signifies but two things either * 1 Joh. 2.18 opposition and contrariety or substitution and †Rom. 12.17 Matth. 5.38 1 Pet. 3.9 Luk. 11.11 commutation so that the matter will come to this we must either carry it thus that Christ gave himself a ransom against Sinners than which nothing more absurd or else thus that he gave himself a ransom in the stead and place of Sinners than which nothing more true I might further prove it by 2 Cor. 5.21 He hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him Gol. 3.13 Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the Law being made a curse for us If he had not so been in his own person woe to poor Sinners they must then have ly'ne under it themselves to all eternity What a full and convincing Chapter is that of Isa 53. for the proof of that which I am upon 't would take up a great deal of time to go * This is done by very many Anti-Socinian Writers Particularly see Grot. de Sat. p. 11. c. O that he had not afterwards spoil'd in his Commentaries upon Isa 53. what he had before in this excellent Treatise so nervously and orthe doxly asserted but there he is as weak as here he is strong Dr. Owen against B. p. 499. c. his vindication of the true sense of it against Grotius p. 521. c. over it and to draw out the strength and emphasis of the several expressions in it I must not engage so far But surely the tongue of man could not utter nor the head of man invent any Words or Phrases more plain and apposite for the setting forth of Christ's substitution than what you have there the truth is its edge is every way as sharp against the SOCINIAN who denyes this as 't is against the JEW who denies Christ's Messiah-ship Vers 4. Surely he hath born our griefs and carried our sorrows c. Vers 5. The chastisement of our peace was upon him and with his stripes we are healed Vers 6. The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all or the Lord hath made the iniquities of us all to meet on him Vers 7. He was oppressed he was afflicted c. or as the words are rendred by some it was * So the word Nagas is taken 2 King 23.35 Zech. 9.8 Significat aigere ad solutionem debiti Forer opprimi ad solvendum adigi ab exactore Morus in loc exacted and he answered Vers 8. For the transgression of my people was he stricken Vers 11. for he shall bear their iniquities Vers 12. and he
occur in Scripture 2 King 3.27 2 King 17.31 2 King 23.10 2 Chron. 28.3 Jer. 7.31 Jer. 19.5 Jer. 32.35 Psal 106.37 38. Levit. 18.21 Levit. 20.2 In other things the Heathens borrowed from the Jews in this the Jews from the Heathens Upon the whole then it appears that Scripture and Nature do both concur in that notion of expiatory Sacrifices which I have insisted upon and surely in the applying of it to Christ the grand expiatory Sacrifice the Gospel is exceeding clear So that when we assert his substitution in the stead of Sinners his dying for them his atoning God and expiating Sin by his death and blood we say nothing but what Jews and Heathens in their expiatory Sacrifices apprehended believed and acted upon They then who differ in these things as to the general nature use and end of such Sacrifices they differ not only from us but from all mankind of whom it might be expected they would better agree with Heathens since they do so ill agree with Christians Of the Second Enquiry when and where Christ was this expiatory Sacrifice I have dispatch'd the First Enquiry What a kind of Sacrifice Christ was the Second follows when and where he was such a Sacrifice To which I answer when he was here on earth and especially when he died upon the Cross then and there he was this expiatory Sacrifice All are not of my mind herein the Enemy who way-lays me in every step I take in these great Truths is upon me again and forces me to defend my self or rather the Truth I have laid down * Socin de Serv. p. 2. c. 12 15. Smale de Divin Christi c. 23. Gatech Racov. de Mun. Christi Sacerd. Quaest 2. He saith Christ's being thus a Sacrifice points to his being in Heaven and to what he there doth that his death here was but a preparation to his Sacrifice as there to be made or but an antecedent Condition to his having of power there to expiate sin with much more to that purpose Here then lies the difference between us and S we say Christ's being the expiatory Sacrifice belongs to that part of his Priestly-Office which he executed here upon earth they make it to refer to that part of his Priestly-Office which he now executes in Heaven we time it in Christ's dying upon the Cross they in his sitting upon the Throne Now that I may at once prove what is true and also confute what is false I argue thus 1. It appears that here Christ's Sacrifice was exhibited or that here he made his expiatory Offering because the Scripture speaks of it as a thing that is past and antecedent to his exaltation and glory and therefore it must be done here on earth and not in Heaven Eph. 5.2 and hath given himself for us an Offering a Sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savour Heb. 1.3 when he had by himself purged our sins he sate down on the right hand of the Majesty on high mark it the Sacrifice-purgation or expiation of sin was over and done and then Christ's exaltation in Heaven followed after Heb. 9.12 Neither by the blood of Goats and Calves but by his own blood he entred in once into the holy place having obtained not to obtain eternal redemption for us Heb. 10.12 But this man after he had offered one Sacrifice for sins for ever sate down on the right hand of God he did not first sit down on the right hand of God and then offer up his Sacrifice for sins but he first offered and then he sat down on the right hand of God 2. When the Scripture speaks of Christ's expiation of sin by the Sacrifice of himself it speaks of it as a thing done but once therefore it must refer to his death which was but once not to his intercession or any other act in Heaven which is a * Heb. 7.25 continued repeated and reiterated act Heb. 9.26 For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the Sacrifice of himself Vers 28. Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many Heb. 7.27 this he did once when he offered up himself Heb. 10.10 By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all Doth this once agree with any thing that he now doth in Heaven 3. If Christ had not dispatch'd his expiatory work at his death why did he then say * Joh. 19.30 It is finished if his expiating of sin was yet to come and to be done in Heaven how could he with truth have spoken these words that all was finished when the great thing was yet undone 4. That of the Apostle is pertinent to our purpose Heb. 10.5 Wherefore when he cometh into the world he saith Sacrifice and offering thou wouldst not but a body hast thou prepared me c. wherefore did Christ come into the world why to be a Sacrifice and to do that which the old Sacrifices could not God was e'ene weary of them could no longer * Heb. 10.8 take pleasure in them he will have Christ the better Sacrifice to come into the world which accordingly he did I but what was the world into which he came surely it must be this lower world for it must be understood of that world into which he came to do the Will of God as appears Vers 7.9 now that was this World below rather than that above for where do we reade that Christ ascended into the upper World to do the Will of God especially this Will of God referring to his assuming a body and offering up that body Vers 5.10 these were things to be done only on this lower stage of earth whence then it follows that here his Sacrifice was made 5. There was as hath been observ'd to be an analogie and resemblance 'twixt Christ's Sacrifice and the Levitical Sacrifices and he was to expiate in that way wherein they did expiate but if you do not place his Sacrifice in his death where will that analogie be or how will he expiate in that way wherein they did What is there in Christ as in Heaven that carries any resemblance to the killing slaying shedding the blood offering of the Levitical Sacrifices There he sits in great glory puts forth his Regal power is Head of Church c. but what 's all this to suffering dying pouring out his blood wherein he was to answer to those Sacrifices Doth the Scripture lay so much upon his death and blood for expiation and yet shall that be done where there is none of these 'T will be said there 's this in Christ in Heaven to carry resemblance to the old Sacrifices their blood was carried by the High-Priest into the Holy of Holy's and there sprinkled by him towards the Mercy-seat upon which expiation and atonement followed now parallel to this Christ
did perfectly obey the Law and as that his perfect obedience is imputed and reckoned to them upon which 't is theirs to â—â—l intents as if they had so obeyed in their own persons But there being many difficulties about this and it leading me to the main Truth which the words hold forth I must endeavour further to open it Which I shall do in the discussing of these three Propositions Three Propositions to clear up the third Interpretation and the main Truth 1. That our Lord Christ was made under the Law 2. That being made under the Law he fulfilled it 3. That his fulfilling of the Law is imputed to Believers so as that in him they fulfilled the Law also 1. Proposition Christ was made under the Law 1. Christ was made under the Law The Apostle is express in this When the fulness of the time was come God sent forth his Son made of a woman made under the Law Gal. 4.4 made under the Law that is made subject to the Law so as that he was under the obligation thereof and bound in all things to conform to its righteousness And this subjection of Christ to the Law did result partly from his Nature partly from his Office From his Nature as he was Man and so a Creature for his Manhood was a created thing now every creature as such is indispensably subject to the Law of God a Creature necessarily must be under the Law of his Creator and Soveraign so far therefore as Christ was such he was indispensably obliged to the Law so far his subjection was natural and thereupon necessary From his Office or that oeconomy and dispensation which he had submitted unto as Mediator Redeemer Surety c. with respect to this he was to be subject too yet in it his subjection was purely free and voluntary 'T is a * See Bodius on Eph. c. 5. p. 812. c. nice Question which some discuss Whether Christ's subjection to the Law did arise from the natural necessity of his being as he was Man and a Creature or whether it did arise only from that mediatory Office which he had submitted to I think things being rightly stated both may be taken in both Nature and Office did require that Christ should be subject to the Law though * This opened in Turret in de Sat. Christi p. 277 278. in different ways For the better understanding of Christ's being made under the Law I desire you to take notice of four or five things Five things to open the Proposition 1. Christ subject to the Law as Man 1. This must be understood of him with respect to his humane Nature This was the Nature which only was capable of subjection Christ as man only could be obedient As to his divine Nature he made the Law so he was the Law-giver and so he was in all acts of power and authority equal with the Father 't was solely in respect of his humane Nature that he was made under the Law which was part of that form of a Servant which he took upon him Phil. 2.7 As he was God 't was proper to him to command as he was Man only 't was proper to him to obey in the former notion he was Lord of the Sabbath Matth. 12.8 in the latter he was bound to keep the Sabbath Christ as man and because man was subject but then 't was only as such 2. As Man in the state of his humiliation 2. Christ as being made under the Law is to be considered not meerly as a Creature upon which he was subject to it but as a Creature in the state of his humiliation and suretyship during which state only his subjection to the Law was to continue For his humane Nature now in Heaven is a Creature and yet there 't is not if we speak strictly under the Law for though Christ there doth materially the things which the Law requires as to be holy to love God c. yet he doth not do them formerly as acts of obedience to the Law but as things which spring from the perfection of his nature and state therefore I say when we are speaking of Christ's being subject to the Law we must not consider him only as Man but as Man in such a way or state in the carrying on of such an undertaking which when he had effected his subjection was to cease Some say that though the subjection which Christ was under in reference to his Office as Mediator be at an end yet his subjection to the Law which was natural and did arise from his being a Creature that yet remains I answer if by this natural subjection they mean only that which results from his Being or that obligation which results from the intrinsick goodness of things so we grant him even in Heaven to be under it but if they mean that subjection or that obligation which relates to and results from an external Law so we deny Christ there to be under it in his glorified state he doth the things which the Law commands but not as or because they are commanded by the Law 3. He was principally subject to the Moral Law 3. The principal Law that Christ was made under and which he was principally obliged to fulfil was the * Vide Bradsh de Justif c. 18. Moral Law This was the Law which at first was made to Adam which he brake and so entayl'd the curse upon all his posterity therefore Christ the serond Adam was also made under this Law that he might fulfil it and so restore man to his primitive happiness This was the Law which was the rule and standard of righteousness wherefore if Christ will convey a righteousness to the creature he must be made under and fulfil this Law He is said to be a curse for us now that curse doth mainly refer to the Moral Law though 't is very true by way of allusion 't is set forth by that which was proper to the judicial Law Gal. 3.13 And he is also said to redeem us from the Law that is from the curse of the Law now 't is the curse annexed to the moral Law that he redeemed us from therefore that was the Law which he was made under This was the Law most excellent if Christ would submit to put himself under the obligation of a Law less exeellent surely he would not refuse to submit to put himself under the obligation of this which was the most excellent Law Especially considering how necessary this was for the good of Sinners for since God stood upon the performance of this Law as the way wherein he would justifie it was most necessary that Christ should be subject to it and perform it or else there would have been no justification Had he been made only under the Ceremonial Law than the benefits of his Obedience would have reached no further than that people who were concerned in that Law and so the Jews
not the Apostle instance in that rather than in spiritual walking Answ * Etsi fides principalis conditio sit quia tamen interna est c. ideo addit illam externam de quâ nemo gloriari possit nisi se liabere foris demonstret Parâ—us because he is not here so much shewing how Christ's righteousness is imputed as who they are or how they carry it to whom 't is so imputed He that would have Christ's righteousness to be his must believe for that is the proper act in order thereunto but he that would know himself or would manifest to others that he is righteous in Christ's righteousness that must be brought about by the heavenliness of his conversation The Observation which lies plainly before us from these words is this That all such who have Christ's righteousness imputed to them they are not fleshly but spiritual walkers they do not live the carnal and sinful but the holy and the heavenly life Or thus None can warrantably pretend to an interest in Christ's Obedience active or passive but only such who in their course are acted by the Spirit and not by the Flesh But I shall not say any thing upon this Point both because this walking not after the flesh but after the Spirit hath been already fully opened and also because as to the inseparable connexion bewixt this imputation and this conversation I may hereafter have occasion to speak more conveniently to it when I shall have more room for it than here I have I will close all with a brief Survey of the Verses which I have gone over that we may the better understand the Apostle's method in them and also what progress we have made in the thing which he is upon He first layes down his main foundation in this Proposition There is no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus Vers 1. Then he amplifies himself about this Proposition where 1. He characterises the proper Subject of the priviledge viz. of non-condemnation who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit this only he names in the general Vers 1. and 4 but then Vers 5. he falls upon a more full and particular illustration of it which he continues in several Verses The Second thing he doth about the Proposition is to prove the truth of the Praedicate that there is no condemnation c. And this he doth by these mediums They who are freed by the regenerating Spirit from the power of Sin and by Christ's death and Sacrifice from the guilt of Sin as also who have Christ's full Obedience and Satisfaction of the Law imputed to them to them there is no condemnation But thus it is with all in Christ Jesus by the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ they are freed from the Law of sin and death there 's deliverance from the power of Sin God by Christ's being a Sacrifice hath condemned Sin there 's deliverance from the guilt of Sin and the righteousness of the Law is fulfilled in them there 's Christ's Obedience imputed to them upon all this it must needs follow that to them there is no condemnation which was the thing to be proved Now these being things of great weight and importance wherein the very vitals and Spirit of the Gospel do lie the due and distinct opening of them with other Truths interwoven in the words hath made this Volume grow to a far greater bigness than what I expected Wherein I have been unnecessarily prolix I humbly begge the Readers pardon but truly in speaking to the Saints exemption from Condemnation the mystical Vnion of Believers with Christ the Spiritual Life the Spirits agency in freeing Souls from the bondage of Sin the Laws inability to justifie and save Christ's Mission eternal Sonship Sacrifice active fulfilling the Law c. I say in these weighty and fundamental points so little understood by the most so much oppugned by Some I thought I could scarce say too much Yet if such who are judicious shall tell me this is a fault I 'le endeavour to mend it in what shall follow wishing that I could as easily mend other faults as that Well! I have begun and having so done I purpose with God's grace and leave to go on till I shall come to the end of this excellent Chapter with this proviso if I may have some encouragement that these past labours may in some measure be useful and profitable without that why should I proceed to trouble others and my self too The good Lord give a blessing to what is done and assist in what is yet further to be done FINIS The Index Directing to the principal Things insisted upon in this Book A. SVch as are in Christ must abide in him Page 73 Of Christ's Active Obedience Vide Obedience Particular Acts do not evidence the State but the general Course Page 92 Of Spiritual Affections Page 109 There is no Condemnation yet much Affliction to Believers Page 7 'T is Antichristianism directly or by Consequence to deny Christ's coming in Flesh Page 422 Of Atonement by Christ Page 498 B. Baptism alone not sufficient to prove Vnion with Christ Page 62 Fleshly Walking contrary to Baptismal Dedication Page 122 Being in Christ opened Page 42 Christ being sent by God that is a great engagement and encouragement also to Sinners to believe on him Page 310 c. How Sin exerts its power in and by the Body Page 183 The miserableness of the Sinners Bondage under Sin opened set forth Page 189 c. The proper and only Cause of Deliverance from Sins Bondage Page 242 c. C. Great Changes in the Godly with respect to their inward Comfort or Sorrow Page 5 The weakness of the Ceremonial-Law Page 262 Of Vnion with Christ Vide Vnion Of Christ's being sent by God the Father Vide Sending Of Christ's Sonship to God Vide Son Of Christ's Incarnation Vide Incarnation Of Christ's being a Sacrifice V. Sacrifice Of Christ's Obedience V. Obedience Christ's praeexistence before he was born of the Virgin proved Page 284. Christ is a Person Page 287 His Personal distinction from his Father proved Page 287 Christ's Godhead proved Page 349 His Manhood Vide Man The excellency of Christ's Priesthood and Sacrifice Page 539 Christ's fitness to be a Redeemer and to be sent by God opened in some particulars Page 299 Communion depends upon Vnion and follows upon it Page 69 84 Communion with God and Communications from him are made credible by Christ's Incarnation Page 444. Christ being Man must be compassionate Page 452 Concupiscence is Sin Page 8 No Condemnation to such as are in Christ Page 7 proved Page 20 Condemnation opened as to Word and Thing Page 17 It refers to Guilt and Punishment Page 18 There 's the Sentence and State of Condemnation Page 19 'T is Virtual or Actual ibid. There is matter of Condemnation in the Best Page 8 Condemnation by Men by Conscience by Satan Page 10 Condemnation under the